In Wellington we visited the Te Papa museum, which had free admission to guests and was a welcome way to spent the morning whilst waiting for our ferry report time. Whilst there I learned some interesting things about Maori history, the Haka chant, the evolution of New Zealand and most importantly, "Shrek the Sheep".
Reporting for the ferry in a timely fashion, we found ourselves in a queue of very similarly sized campers, for an hour or so. Once loaded onto the ship, Wendy had a scenic albeit wet spot out on deck towards the rear. We headed inside to some cosy seats where I may have had a short nap...
Three hours later we noticed land either side of us, and with the sun shining we went out on deck to enjoy the view that Wendy was enjoying. Tory Channel and Queen Charlotte Sound were both spectacular - with tiny fishing bays and multiple batches, all only accessible by boat.
An hour later we arrived in Picton, which is rather quaint for what is basically a port town. Here we were met by my Uncle Ian and Auntie Jan, ho whisked us straight onto a water taxi. This is exactly how it sounds - a New York cab type boat. We bounced across the sound to Lochmara bay, in the West of which was a large batch housing nine of my extended family - soon to be made eleven with our arrival.
Walking along the small wooden jetty we were inspired by the beauty and tranquility of the bay. The water was perfectly flat and the batch right in the grassy shore. We were greeted by my Uncle's brothers Clive and Robert, Clive's wife Ullah (spelling tbc!), Robert's daughter Naomi, her husband Andrew, and children Ed and Kate.
Ed soon commandeered us for a quick fishing trip and we found ourselves casting out off the end of the jetty with the rod, line and squid bait. My first few attempts were unsuccessful but Peter had more luck, catching on his second attempt. A couple more casts and I had also caught a (slightly bigger) fish!
Feeling pleased with our catches we sat down to a big family dinner, enjoying the food and wine. I met a rather cute labra-doodle called Charlie, whose curly hair was much softer than mine. Jealous.
After dinner we played Dobble, a game where there are 52 cards, each with 8 of a selection of 50 symbols on them. Any two cards will have at least one matching symbol on them and to play you do variants of games to find these matching symbols. Sort of like a stressful version o snap - especially as some of the symbols are fairly hard to describe, like "Green blob" or difficult to say quickly, like "No entry sign". I'm also yet to work out the maths behind there always being a matching symbol on each card.
By now it was dark and we put on our shoes and trekked up to a mini bridge over a stream. Switching off our torches, the dark valley was illuminated by glow worms. These produced a fairy-light effect, which was stunning in the dark, I found it hard to believe it was a natural phenomenon.
No comments:
Post a Comment