Heading Home

 Our last night in the South Island was quite a worry.  A storm came rolling in as the day wore on, and was fully fledged by night time.  We could swear that the thunder was right over head, and each noisy clap spooked Gemma.  She ran around the van looking for a hiding place, hunkering down on the carpet at the foot of the bed, with the overhanging duvet giving her the illusion of cover.  Lightening cracked around us, torrential rain came down, and the caravan was buffeted all night by strong wind gusts.  Dear oh dear, what would our sailing be like the following day, we wondered. 

 Luckily the storm had gone the next morning, just leaving the wind gusts behind.  Time for the final part of our journey, crossing Cook Strait.  We were hoping the return trip would not be too rough, after all that bad weather the previous day.  While we were waiting in our lane to board the ship, we noticed a silly young girl walking around with a tiny pup.  The pup was not on a lead at all, and the girl was running here and there with the pup trying hard to keep up.  No control at all, and I had visions of a car or truck driving up to wait where they had been sent, and running over the pup.  Luckily that didn't happen, but.....  Soon, the vehicles in our lane were waved aboard, our journey across Cook Strait is beginning.

It is always rather noisy down in the hold.  Pets have to stay in the vehicles, or in Gemma's case, inside the caravan.  She is left with water and dry food in her bowls, and her dirt box.  Other than that, she is on her own, and has to deal with the trip alone for the next few hours as best she can.

Gemma stays in the caravan during the trip

So it was up to the cafe for a light lunch.  As the ship started to slowly leave the wharf I stepped out on the deck to take a few photos.  Traveling through the Marlborough Sounds is always so calm and  beautiful.

 On our way through the Sounds

I had brought my knitting with me to while away the time.  Not the blue pair of socks I was knitting on the trip down - I'm up to the heels on those so put them aside till I returned home.  This is another recently started pair, the pretty pink sock wool was a Christmas gift from my daughter, Nicky.

Busy knitting socks

The remainder of the journey was surprisingly calm, hard to believe after the terrible weather the previous day.  A friendly traveler noticed the Scotch Thistle on the front of my jumper and asked if I was from Scotland.  No, I answered,  but I did buy my jumper there in Edinburgh, and my maternal grandfather came from Glasgow.  It was easy to work out that this man was Irish, he had such a wonderful lilting Irish accent.  Yes, we've been to Ireland too, we said, and spent an interesting hour or so swapping travel tales.

He  saw my camera and asked if we would like a photo.  He and his wife were very impressed that we made such good use of our caravan and traveled far and wide around our beautiful country.  "You two are enjoying life and living the dream", he commented.

The time soon passed and we arrived in Wellington.   Time to head down to the car deck and get ready.  We decided to stop at Plimmerton NZMCA Park for the night, as it was getting dark, and we didn't want to arrive home and unload the van at night time.  A quick meal, and it was early to bed, it had been a big day and we were exhausted.  The next morning after  breakfast we hooked up for the final leg of the journey.  Home at last we unpacked the van, put the first load of washing on, and sat and relaxed over a late lunch.  Phew, it's good to be home again.  We had 10 days away this trip, and traveled 1110 kms.

While we were away Spring has sprung and our Kowhai tree had burst into blossom.  We brought this tree up to our new home in Levin as a seedling from our garden, and it is certainly thriving up here.

Our Kowhai tree in blossom