New Zealand – North to South

Two days ago the Snail and I took the Interislander ferry from Wellington to Picton. It is meant to be one of the most scenic crossings in the world and it didn’t disappoint.
I plonked myself down between a German father and son who had taken up the rather scarce seats with a bag. So in swapping one type of bag for another I found I had the best and the worst seat on the boat. Best because it was front and center and worst because we were traveling due north and into the sun. It was very hot and I was like a boil-in-the bag, ending up with a headache.
That all said, I saw a pod of dolphins at the prow of the boat just after we set off across the Cook Strait.
Then later into the Marlborough Sound which I think was spectacular. The shear cliffs that have vegetation clinging to them right down to the waters edge.
The sun was very low in the sky as I disembarked at Picton (not helping my headache). Nothing much was open by way of shops or even petrol stations although it was midweek. I headed to Nelson, driving through a flood plane and great agricultural area, vineyards and fruit farms everywhere. Of course its autumn here and harvest time.
Gradually the road starts to meander and then it really begins to climb, contorting itself into tight loops. I was driving slowly as usual and I’m so glad because I came around a bend to find a lorry had shed a load of grapes onto the road. Police were on the scene which was something of a slippery mess. I gave a little whine (Sorry it had to be said)!

The next day I explored a bit and bought provisions for my travels. I drove up to edge of the Abel Tasman National Park to see how accessable it would be and spent a very pleasant afternoon wandering the very shallow bay and sandy beaches. Watching oystercatchers and Grey faced heron. I also saw a white heron and I’ve just found out how rare a sighting is. It was fishing along Sandy Bay creek and its hard to mistake as its about the size of a European heron but pure white. I’m not sure if I need to report it to anyone!

Bees native to New Zealand are small and solitary. Bumblebees are not native and honey bees are livestock. While sitting having a drink of water a couple of honey bees landed on me. Now I remember years ago when I kept bees that New Zealand bees were highly sought after as they were productive and placid. I had two lots of European bees and one hive was mostly British Black and very bad tempered. At the time I dreamed of purchasing a New Zealand Queen to calm my hive and at that time she had something of a mythical status. Today I saw these light golden bees with an almost translucent abdomen. They landed on my sleeve and for me it was like seeing fairies they were so beautiful.

No I have not been smoking pot! Later in the cafe that was possiblity as it stank of it.

I just wanted to say a bit about my land lady Liyun. She was originally from Taiwan and moved here after early retirement as a teacher. She was so sweet and because I was interested in her vegetable garden she showed me how to make a fermented plant food. She also let me have a lemon off her tree so I could make a drink for my cough.
Her food waste gave me a start when I opened the microwave to cook a potato and found a half eaten fish head in it! There is method in her madness, she keeps it in there to keep the flies off before wrapping it to go in the outside bin!