Farewell to the South

On Friday we left the west coast and had a beautiful drive through the Buller Gorge over to Nelson. Along the way we met a charming Irish couple at one of the lookout points and now have a standing invitation to visit them in Dublin!




It was great to be back in Nelson, in the area that we enjoyed so much in January, and see the vineyards in their bright fall colours. We visited with Marion Towns and picked up the print we had ordered made of her original pastel, Soul Watching Over Poverty Bay. It turned out even better than I had expected, and I am thrilled with this lovely fiftieth birthday present from Frank--can't wait to see it stretched and hung on our wall at home.

We had a great night in the Rutherford Hotel in Nelson,a very elegant and luxurious place for a very good price ($130 NZ), in a room with a great view of the cathedral tower. After a Thai dinner in a very authentic restaurant, we went to see Sione's Wedding, another of the good NZ films that are being made these days. This one is about the Samoan culture in NZ, and is very funny and heartwarming.

Marion's husband Jim suggested that, as we had the time, we should take 'the road less traveled' and drive the Queen Charlotte Drive across from Nelson to Picton to catch the ferry on Saturday. As the day was clear and bright, we took his advice and were glad we did. The road is pretty challenging, with many, many hairpin turns, but the views out into Cook Strait through the Queen Charlotte Islands are breathtaking.

Our last ferry ride was the best of the four we've had. The Strait was flat calm and the weather fine, so I was able to get up on the sundeck and really enjoy the beautiful islands as we passed through them. We will sorely miss this ocean/mountain scenery when we leave New Zealand.






Arriving back on the North Island in late afternoon, we drove up to Otaki and stayed the night at the cottage rented out by Victoria Ginn, a Kiwi photographer whose work I discovered while still in Canada last year. The accommodation is called Middle Earth Hideaway--an appropriate choice for a Lord of the Rings fan! Victoria is a fascinating woman who has not only published two books of extraordinary photographs, but also a book about her terrifying experience being imprisoned in Afghanistan when she got caught in the revolution there as a young woman. She is looking for someone to help her turn this book into a film--who knows, someday we may see it all on the big screen and be able to say we know the author! Victoria very generously made me a gift of a signed copy of her second book of photos (I already have the first at home); it will be a great souvenir of our time with her.

Sunday we visited several of Frank's motorcycle contacts, finalizing some 'deals' and collecting "just a few more small parts," and finished up back at the home of Sheila and Barry Grainger in Palmerston North. Today we are meeting with the executive at UCOL to sign a memorandum of understanding between Fanshawe and this polytechnic, which we hope will be the foundation for some partnerships in future. We will stay another night here, then continue north, with a stop in Hamilton, to Auckland, where we will stay a few days with Heather, Margaret Woodbridge's sister (what would we have done without the kindness of these Kiwi friends?) before flying home on Saturday. We have a stopover in Hong Kong on the way home, so there may be a few photos for a final blog, but we are indeed nearing the end of this journey. It will be so lovely to get home to family, friends, pets and garden, but we will leave NZ with much reluctance and a firm determination to return as soon as we can.