Homeward and Outward Bound

It's never easy coming to the realisation that your holiday is coming to a close, although when it has gone on for as long as ours has, there is more than a little yearning for home & familiar beds. Its not easy to leave though when your hosts at a motel are as friendly as old friends, coming out to see you off & taking time out from their busy schedule to talk to you for ten minutes or so, making it very difficult to leave..

However, leave we did, setting a course up the Buller Gorge. There is an almost mystical feeling knowing that you are going to be following a river almost to it's source, wondering what it must have been like for men such as Buller & Brunner who came through on foot, with only Maori tracks to guide them, not knowing how long they would be away or, indeed if they would even survive. By this time, we were feeling more than just a little maxed out when it came to rivers, mountains, stunning views etc., & had more or less decided not to worry about taking any more pictures, but there are always exceptions when you are down south, like this...

A place where the road has literally been carved back into the cliff, because there was no other alternative. Apparently, it is only just high enough for trucks & buses to negotiate safely. Then there is this...

A little island in the middle of the river weighed down under a mass of native bush. One can but only conjecture on the native wildlife living there.

So on we go. It is quite an amazing feeling getting to see places that we learned about in the history books, like Inangahua & Murchison, where there were such devastating earthquakes early on in our short but colourful history. Finally, we reached Richardson, where Jude fulfilled another of her Bucket list things, namely a visit to the Hoglund Glass Studios. Cameras are forbidden there, but you can see their work here . From there, we went into Nelson to look at the museum. Sadly, we got the wrong one. What she didn't tell me at the time was that she wanted to visit the one that had the wearable arts display. Never mind, the place was culturally uplifting anyway. Sadly, we had the only sour part of our trip in Nelson in the form of a verbal dispute over who had more right to a handicapped carspace. Us or a pigmentaciously disadvantaged gentleman in a lowrider Holden. Sorry Bro, you rather lowered the tone of what was otherwise a lovely city.

We were going to stay in Nelson, but a couple of phonecalls assured us of a bed at Peters place in Picton & also a berth on Blue Bridges 12.00 oclock crossing on the Sunday. Onya Blue Bridge, you guys rock when it comes to price, service, flexibility& good old fashioned hospitality. Dont change guys, you are awesome.

So we did the Nelson Picton leg via the Queen Charlotte road. Although it isn't the fastest way of getting there, it enabled me to cross something off MY bucket list, namely a visit to Anakiwa, specifically The Outward Bound School there. I was lucky enough to win a Lions Club sponsorship for a course in 1967. I found it to be a profoundly life changing experience & thoroughly enjoyed it. As luck would have it a new course was starting the day we were there. Course number 558. Mine was course 48.. My how time flies......
















My old watch house, although in my time, it was a very small & draughty hut. They now have 4 of these ships cutters instead of the one we had when I went there. Lovely to see them being used & valued on a daily basis. They really are a beautiful craft

Anyway from there, it was on to Pete's place for our last night in the South Island. Cant think of anyone nicer to spend it with. It was lovely to meet you Peter & we enjoyed the hospitality. Thanks mate.