Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Arrival in Nelson

Monday 17 July. Yes, we’ve finally arrived. Our trip from Wellington by ferry was surprisingly exhausting. We didn’t do much physically, but driving was stressful. The crossing of Cook Straight was foggy most of the way, so we are sorry to have no photos for you and for ourselves, we had expected it to be beautiful scenery and I’m sure it is on a clear day. Don did, however, get some awesome sunrise photos as we were parked at the ferry terminal in Wellington before we left. We’ll post those separately.

The ferry was absolutely huge, apparently the largest in New Zealand (is that saying much?) and I was sure we would drown from all the huge trucks and campers getting on board. In the end, it wasn’t probably half full, so that is all that saved us from certain death! But the upstairs was very luxurious with bars and family lounges for kids and other television seating areas so you could watch kids shows or Le Tour as Don and I did (that boy can sniff out a cycling show from miles away, I think. I mean, I like cycling, but he is gaga). Then I fell asleep while Don read and toured the boat, and when I woke we were pretty much landed in Picton. And guess what happened then . . . the skies cleared!! Argh.

From Picton we took the back road—there is only one—to save 50 kms and all the ferry traffic, since we left the ship last of everyone, to Nelson and if you think Colorado has mountains and curvy roads, you ain’t seen nothing until you come to New Zealand. These people won’t make a straight road even if it costs less, they wouldn’t know how to drive it! The speed limit on this road was apparently some 50km/hr, or 30mph. I couldn’t get a touch above 30km/hr and I’m a total leadfoot! Needless to say, the back road took awhile, but it was pretty and deserted.

After about 90 mins we drove into Nelson and everything felt familiar. We went right to our motel and checked in. Then we drove directly to the rental place I’d been communicating with and apparently places are going like hot cakes, so we drove around to see what was in our price range, asked a local about the good neighborhoods and the not-so-good ones, and set up time on Tuesday to see what we want: only two bloody places! Guess what, we’ll surely like at least one of them cuz otherwise we’re out on our booties. But even if you’re saying to yourself, jeesh you sure waited to the last minute, think again! We wouldn’t have had our emails or phone calls returned had we started to look prior to arriving here. Things go too quickly that if you’re not around to catch the rental, someone else surely will and the landlords will only pay attention to the folks who are in the city. So bummer for us that we had to wait to arrive, but chances are still good we’ll find something.

We’ve been a bit busy to walk around and take photos of Nelson just yet, but we will. The sun has been shining the past few days, but a cold front is due in on Weds and we’ll have some rain I guess. On Friday we are driving toward Christchurch to pick up our cutie bear Livvy and to take her home. She’s probably been freezing her bum off with the weather down there although I am told she has a heating lamp and heated floors. It actually might be warmer in her cage than in some homes!

Special Note: Thanks to our friends John and Star Kane for sending us our very first piece of friends/family mail here! (Our Kiwi bank also sent mail, but that doesn’t count!) What a great surprise it was to have a personal note (and a very sweet one at that) waiting for us on our first full day in Nelson. Now the rest of you, hop to it! All of 75c and a few keen sentences on a postcard or note card will bring us great joy here in our new corner of the world.

1 Comments:

At Wed Jul 19, 02:35:00 pm NZST, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Glad you two enjoyed the card! Star is such a sweetie isn't she? She even manages to make me look good and that takes serious effort. You slept on the ride over Angela? I am surprised you weren't excited to be 'home.' As for Don, he does seem to have that cycle'dar' doesn't he?

 

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