A few more adventures.

Well, tonight I am in Palmerston North, having spent the last couple of nights with Judith, Maureen's daughter, and her partner, Ariana. However let me tell you about after I left Motueka. I drove down the road towards Nelson and found my way to the beach cafe at Tahuna where my scrapbooking buddy Carena had suggested we meet! I was a little late having taken a wrong turning somewhere along the beach, and having been put straight by a rather eccentric looking (and sounding) Englishman who told me to turn left at the place where some building or other USED to be! As if I knew where that was! However fearing even more impossible instructions I just smiled and nodded, and thanked him before taking off at a rate of knots! Anyway I did find the cafe and Carena, with her Mum Vena, and daughter Caitlin! After a cup of something hot to drink and a rather lovely piece of cake with a toffee topping, while Caitlin had a play in the playground, we set off for Wakefield, on the edge of Nelson, Vena -oh and Caitlin, complete with her own car seat - with me to show me the way.

After tea, and fun with Caitlin, we got onto the computer and Carena showed me how she uses her Photoshop software to design scrapbooking stuff for the likes of mere mortals like me to use in our own scrapbook pages. I think I might be able to do a few of the tricks she uses with my own software, though I may have to go round the houses a bit to get the same effects! I look forward to trying them out when I get home though!

Anyway we talked and talked, and I showed her some lacemaking websites. Because Carena is so into sewing and other crafts, she knew all the sensible questions to ask about the lace and the bobbins, and I am certain that if she were to have a go she'd pick it up extremely quickly!

It was well after midnight, after 1 a.m. too, when we finally decided it was bedtime! Caitlin was back at school the next morning after two weeks holidays, so everyone was up early - even if they all did sleep in just a tad!

Caitlin wanted me to come with them when Carena drove her to school so despite just being up. I threw on some clothes, and jumped into the car with them! I even had to go into her classroom and look at all her pictures and writing! Brings back memories of a former life - especially when I saw her teacher sitting on the floor with a pair of scissors getting something organised for the day ahead!

The bell rang so Caitlin rushed to be one of the first to sit down - I gather rewards are given for those who do well - so back Carena and I went to have brekkie with Vena. More chatter and I listened to lots of Vena's stories of being brought up on a farm! She's a character, she is! I laughed and laughed! Eventually before we'd even moved from the table it was lunch time so I stayed for lunch too! I had to get to Picton for the ferry to Wellington, so got going at last, up and up and round and round two more high passes and then down across a plain into wine country! Wineries were all along the road, and miles and miles of grape vines in rows and rows and rows!

Then I reached Picton, not that I saw much of it in keeping my eyes peeled for the place to drop off my car! Luckily it was right opposite the ferry terminal, so I dropped the keys off and headed off to buy my ticket. Once on the boat - the Interislander, by the name of Waka Aritake. waka being the Maori word for a canoe or a boat or ship - I was able to look back to the town and realised it seems to be at the end of a fiord. It certainly looked like that anyway! I had heard that the sail out to the strait between South and North Islands is very beautiful, passing lots of little islands, but I had forgotten when opting for the latest ferry of the day, that it would be dark by the time we set off! So instead of views I got out my book and headed for the comfy seats, which just happened to be in the bar, and no, I still only had fruit juice!

The sail across to Wellington seemed very peaceful with the gentle rolling and tilting. Very relaxing, and all of a sudden, though it was three hours later, the lights of Wellington were visible as we came into the bay. Passengers got their instructions either to go back to their cars or gather at one of the muster stations, and soon we were off the ship, our waka, and picking up our luggage. Judith was there to meet me - lovely to see her again after a few years - got my bags into her car and we were off to Upper Hutt, the suburb of Wellington where she and Ariana have the most gorgeous house in a leafy treelined street on a hill. They haven't really got a view but are not overlooked, and have a beautiful woodland background to the deck and garden at the back! They live quite close to buses and it is only a little further to the train to the city. I was introduced to Ariana, and Huia, her sister, who is lodging with them till she gets her own apartment. Judith and Ariana are both head teachers in Wellington schools so were to be up early the next morning, but Huia and I stayed up a little later and I had the offer of a lift into the city in the morning.

Next morning Huia dropped me off at the big museum on the water front of Wellington. Called Te Papa, it is a national museum with loads of hands on stuff for kids and adults alike. There is a section on the earthquakes and volcanic activity locally - NZ being at the edge of two of the earth's plates, it is not unusual to feel a tremour or two. It is all laid out so imaginitively, one of the exhibits being a model of a small cabin that you can enter, listen to a commentary and feel what it would be like for the place to be shaken - quite considerably - by a quake! Great fun! Loads of things for kids to explore, including in the nature section, the model heart of a blue whale, the largest mammal in the seas! Kids were crawling through the tubes, into the heart. and goodness knows what was inside but the kids were talking about various things they could see inside! The Maori section has a beautifully coloured model Marai - a meeting house - at one end of a long hall where sometimes they have Maori gatherings for the visitors, demonstrating the various parts of the welcoming ceremony, including the Haka - the challenge - and including songs, with hand movements; sticks thrown rhythmically between singers, and the balls on strings that the Maori girls are so adept at waving in patterns - if that doesn't sound ridiculous! There was no show yesterday but it meant the Marae could be investigated closely. Another section was about immigrants to NZ - including the Scots, who seem to have introduced a lot of their culture and customs over the years. There's a display about how important it is to recycle and not have to have so many landfill sites with rubbish that will not break down for years, centuries, if ever! Oh just SO much to see!

I spent three hours at Te Papa, and could have stayed longer but I wanted to do a few other things before the end of the afternoon. I walked quite a lot through the busy streets, looking at shop windows - loads of stuff for the youngsters - and occasionally wandering into one to take a look. I rode in the cable car which is more like a little train, from the city up to the botanic gardens at the top of the hill. What views of the bay with the city all round, houses climbing up the hillsides that are so close to the water. I didn't linger too long but rode down again and continued walking along the main street to look at the parliament building they call the Beehive! (For obvious reasons, once you see it!)

Then it was time to get the train back out to the Hutt! It was already getting dark and was pitch black by the time I reached the local station. It all looked so different in the dark! Huia had pointed out where the bus came to, where to catch the bus to their place, where the station was..... but as I say it all looked unfamiliar. I asked in a supermarket how to reach their street and a guy doing his shopping told me he was going that way and would drop me off! It would have been a bit of a hike so getting a lift was quite fortunate!

Judith's younger daughter, Tania, and her friend Hayden came for tea which was a lively affair, Tania being quite an outgoing young woman who knows her own mind!!! They however didn't stay long and left us oldies to our cups of tea, the wine having run out earlier!

This morning Judith took me to pick up a hire car to get me to Auckland. I actually can't remember what it is but it's smaller than the Corolla and more like I am used to! Have to say it feels like I am almost sitting on the road after the high seat of the Corolla. I had said my farewells to Ariana and Huia, promising to keep in touch, so soon it was time to hug Judith goodbye and off she disappeared to school. Before I left "Welly" I was paying a visit to yet another relly, a descendant of the Inglises, who lives near the airport. Despite being quite a busy city, it wasn't difficult to find Marje's place, a rather basic retirement flat in a small complex underneath the flight path. She, at 92 - nearly - looks really good, is quite capable and walks really well,with no sticks at all! I was welcomed with open arms and spent the next couple of hours telling her about her Inglis grandfather and his brothers' families in Australia, Scotland and Canada. She hadn't known a lot at all about her Inglis family as her other grandparents had been the ones who were still living when she was young. She was so interested in how I fitted into her extended - very - family, being the great granddaughter of Robert, brother of Marge's grandfather John. Robert stayed in Scotland while John headed for the new world, ending up in NZ! Another brother Thomas spawned the Aussie cousins, and my dear departed Moira was a descendant of yet another brother, James!

Again with promises of keeping in touch I said goodbye, and got in my little white car that I have nicknamed Beetle - number plate is BTL--- and set off to find my way back through the city and onto the motorway for the west coast. It was relativelt straightforward too, and eventually I was out of the city and heading for Waikanae (sounds like Why can I, though not with a Scottish wh, but an English w!) where I was hoping to catch up with Carolyn, mum to Brian, a customer in the Co-op back home! Regrettably she wasn't around - no-one was - so after leaving her a note, and taking a couple of pictures to show Brian I was actually there, I left and continued up the Kapiti coast

Kapiti Island

through Te Horo, where the only Inglis family descended from John live. I had been told by one of the daughters not to visit as her dad is very ill so I drove past the road end (which I remembered from my last trip) feeling rather sad that I couldn't even call to say hello. Anyway, I wasn't wanted, so that was that!

It was already beginning to dull down and rain, and it was about to get dark so it was time I thought about a bed for the night. By the time I reached here it WAS dark, so tomorrow I must have a little look around. I booked into the Shamrock Hotel, mentioned in the Lonely Planet Guide, and got an en suite room for $55, which I don't consider too bad! $50 is only about 20 pounds. No internet there so the place next door is doing the honours! Loads of young guys playing internet games etc. How they can keep up with the speed these games move at, is way beyond me!!

Well, I think this has been another marathon effort! Time to get back next door to the "Shammy"!

Talk again soon.