Well, here we are aboard the good ship Santa Regina at the Aotea Wharf in Wellington waiting for the off for Picton. Rob assures me that the North wind is good juju for a smooth crossing. He works for Blue Bridge so I guess he would know. Jude is asleep in our cabin, with strict instructions to wake her before we cast off. I don’t think she will want to miss any of the trip. For that matter, I don’t want to miss any of it either.


It’s been an eventful trip so far. I have been fighting a running battle all the way to stop the tiedowns for Jude’s wheelchair drumming & making an unholy racket. I think I’ve beaten it. The secret would appear to be to put a few twists in the straps. It seems to stop it. One of my biggest problems so far has been finding time to jot anything down here. Every time I think I’m OK, someone comes out ready to talk. Not that there is any problem with that.

I should have realized that we were in for a hard time when I found myself packing on Friday the 13th…. Never mind…We got everything in OK, & although it works out that we end up having to take a lot of stuff in at night, I have it to a fine art, with us having one smaller bag each with our day to day needs & another bag with our reserve gear & another bag with our warm gear.

Not to put too fine a point to it, it pissed down on Saturday when we left & continued to do so until we got to the summit of the Napier Taupo Highway. The only real problem That I have encountered while on the road is basically lunch time. Jude is reluctant , & I don’t blame her, to sit & watch me eat in a restaurant, so I have reconciled myself to takeaways for lunch, that I can eat while sitting with her, as for my part, I am reluctant to leave her in Sherman while I go & eat.


Our first visit was with Muna in Hastings, a lovely surprise visit, but sadly, not one where we could stay as we wanted to catch up with Mike & Kaye , Jude’s cousins, & lovelier people & more gracious hosts you couldn’t wish to have. They organized a cousins get together for Jude on the Sunday, & as you can see by the pic, we all had a wonderful time. We also arranged for Paddington to pay a surprise visit to his Aunty Muna which was a lovely treat for us all. The only down side to it was that I left my phone at Mike & Kayes, traveling some 20 or so km’s before I realized. The whole fam damily at Mike & Kayes

Saying goodbye to folk as nice as them is hard enough first time round, but when you have to do it twice, its even worse.


Once we got on the road properly, we headed for Carterton & my cousin Shirley’s place. We detoured via Ongaonga, so that Jude could see where she used to live & where she went to school. While we were there, Paddington made friends with some of the locals.

We had a lovely catchup with Shirl, not long enough, but we will spend more time on the way back. Paddington getting to know Jess





The next leg was a difficult one for Jude. You see
neither of us have ever really had much to do with other MND sufferers, & after a very windy trip over the Rimutaka’s, we arrived at Moira Anne’s place. We came to know her through quite a circuituitous route & our life is richer for it. Moira Anne is a fellow MND sufferer. One who not only has the disease, but who also nursed her Mum through it. She arranged for some friends of hers to come round to meet us, among them, a husband & wife of whom the wife not only has MND, but also has early Alzheimers as well. A most difficult path for them to tread , with her being at a very similar stage of MND as Jude is. Jude found this a little scary, but they are a lovely & much devoted couple & a fine example. Moira Anne is just as lovely in person as she is to talk to via Skype. Thank you my dear for opening your home & your heart to us.

We stayed last night with Heather & Rob. We got to know them via the same route as we did Moira Anne. They nursed Heather’s Mum through MND. Ever since I first spoke to Heather on the phone, I knew we were going to be friends & that was confirmed when we met them. Staying with them was a bit like coming home for us both & we enjoyed our time. It was really great to be able to talk to someone with a carers perspective. I think we both found the talk therapeutic. Another tough goodbye, but eased by the knowledge that we are going to have another night with them on the way back.

So, here we are about halfway across Cook Straight. It’s not particularly rough. Just enough up & down motion to let you know in no uncertain terms that you are actually at sea. Tonight we stay with Peter alias Cwnda, in Picton. Yet another net friend that we have talked to a lot but never actually met.