(Friday, January 9th)Quick Snip-it: We started our South Island journey, met some YFC people at their bases in Wanganui & Wellington. Toured Wellington, Had our ferry canceled, got adopted by strangers who are nice old couple who have 4 children & 12 grandchildren, stayed with them at their batch (holiday home), Preston mowed their grass, and we went diving for Paua and Muscle. How’s that for the beginning our of South Island Holiday Trip??
Here is The Story: It’s day 3 of our South Island Journey and we have had an incredible and blessed time thus far. We drove about 8 hours the first day just to “get south” and stopped off in Wanganui to catch lunch with a friend, Melody who is serving YFC in that city. From there we had a 3 hour drive to Wellington where we Met up with Karl and his wife Mel and their 2 cute little kids. (Poppy & Mia). We spent 2 nights in their home and were able to tour Wellington during the day. We visited the Te Papa Museum, which was much larger then we anticipated, and then took a cable card ride to the top of a mountain to overlook the city, see some botanical gardens, and a few observatories. Can you believe all those activities in Wellington were Free!!? That’s how we like it. It was just $5.00 for the cable car and then $12.00 for a day of parking!Our second day in Wellington is where the adventure began…. We were suppose to be at the Vehicle Ferry at Noon for a 1pm shipping. However, we got a txt message saying that the ferry was canceled due to mechanical problems. Don’t get me wrong, I am glad they canceled it; it’s a 3 hour ferry trip on a good day; and I didn’t want to be on a broken boat stranded in the middle of the ocean. But it also kinked our plans. We could either ferry the next day or at 7pm that night. However, by taking the night ferry we wouldn’t arrive on the South Island until 11pm. In doing this, it would be really dark to drive, and hard find a camp ground with openings when we arrived. So anyway, neither of us really cared what we should do, so neither of us wanted to make the decision. We just wanted the cheaper and most convenient option.
So the story continues from there….. Preston would not tell me what he wanted to do at all. So standing in the parking lot at our car I gave him a dramatic play on describing both sides. (stay in wellington another night and waste a day, or go in the dark and have to setup camp so late). After my whining was almost over a nice old man walked over and asked: “Do you not know what to do?” and after a short conversation he said “take the 7pm ferry and come to my home and pitch your tent on our lawn so you don’t have to find a camp ground – I have a holiday home right in Picton where you want to go” Then in the next breath after his wife walked over - he said “Actually we will give you a bed and a nice hot shower just follow us when you get off of the ferry”. WOW! What a nice guy.
So long story short: Here we are in Picton staying at a “batch” (holiday home) with some nice ole Grandparents. (Doug & Rhonda) We were only going to stay one night, but they want us to stay again, and since we had no real set plans, we are. We all went in their boat today and collected heaps of
muscles to cook; and we also went snorkel diving for Paua Shells. (Paua is a gorgeous shell with bright colors and has a black thing in it that you can eat). PS: I am not eating it!!
We hung out, popped a bottle of wine, had a cook-out and Preston mowed their Grass. Yes – all with some strangers but lovely people!! We’ve spent 2 days hanging out with them and absolutely loved it. Great conversations, great hospitality; and they use to be in tourism so we’ve been getting heaps of tips and pointers on where we should go, what we should do, and where to stay! Since we will be gone for 21 days and planned on camping, any genuine hospitality is great – sure beats paying for a camping spot, sleeping outside, and cooking our own food.
We saw Seals on the side of the road today sitting on rocks at the beach.
We walked right up to them for photos!!
Chick flick movies, Pizza, cookies (Biscuits), brownies, balloons, and Projector to show movies meant there was too much fun to have. Karaoke, and dancing kept us up until 2:45am hot and sweaty. Nearing 3am I finally had to cut off the YouTube dance videos (to: CandyMan, Mr. Wiggles, High School Musical etc...) and get sleeping bags set up. I didn't realize how much "older" I felt until I no longer wanted to stay up all hours of the night and clown around. We had some great night time discussions / Girl Talk, and I really connected with the girls here. Of course they want to come back and do it all over again, but for now - I need some Sleep!!! I have heaps of great photos to share with you; and will look to post them a little later today or tomorrow. For now, I am off to take a nap on the beach because it's such a beautiful Saturday!!
