We had a difficult night as Jon woke about 2.30 as Bertie had performed. Normally this would not be a problem but as Jon now has this hernia Bertie is not sitting well on his tummy and he does not always get a good seal. We have only had problems a couple of times but of course when in a motel it is more difficult and embarrassing. Fortunately, the damage was not too bad and we were finally able to get back to sleep.
When we woke this morning and watched the news we knew how lucky we had been with our arrival time yesterday. The road we drove through, just a few kilometres up the road, had been completely flooded and something like 220mm of rain had fallen in just over an hour - wow! We had driven through the start but had managed to get into our room before it all came down. There were also some heavy downpours through the night which caused some major slips on the roads so we decided to stay put in Nelson for the day and not venture too far.
We had breakfast and cleared away. I tried to put the dishwasher on but it would not start. I went out to speak to the cleaner and she said it was always happening and they would get it sorted. I also told her about the soiled sheet which I had washed and she was very kind and said not to worry and she would put a clean sheet on. A young girl but very kind and it makes a big difference. I suppose it is another thing we have to accept though hopefully after the surgery it will be sorted.
We walked into the centre, about five minutes, and looked around the shops. It was really warm but we had a few downpours. We had coffee in a nice cafe and went to see what was on the cinema - school holidays - nothing for us!
We walked back to the motel, my route! It took much longer than it should have. I think our travels ar now catching up with us and we feel very tired and five days in Thailand is looking very inviting!
Finally, we got back just as it was starting to rain. Our room had been made up and all was well again. And the dishwasher was fixed.
We had lunch in the room. I decided that I had been eating too much so just had some ham, a carrot and a few tomatoes - still thinking of the wedding outfit - panic!!
The weather was by now looking better and the thunder, forecast for the afternoon did not happen, so we wen out to Cable Bay to check out the Flying Fox which is something I have wanted to do sine we saw it four year ago when we were down here.
We arrived at the place, a farmhouse, and the lady came out and looked up to the mountains and said "mmmm I think we might be able to fit you in before it rains". I asked her how far it was to walk and she pointed to a pine tree on the top of the mountain and said "we take you up there by car". It was a very long way and as the clouds were coming over we decided to leave it till tomorrow when the forecast is supposed to be better.
She gave us a leaflet withe the phone number on and told us to call as the wether can be very different to the centre. We left to carry on down to Cable Bay.
On the way I read the leaflet. I thought it was just a long zip wire that you sat in chairs to go the 3.2 km length. Wrong! It starts with a 800mtr drop and then carries on along the 3.2 wire over the forest. All fine except for the 800mtr drop which can reach up to 100km!! THEN you do the whole thing again BACKWARDS. I will have a think about it and decide tomorrow. The 800mtr drop is the only thing that concerns me and 3.2 km is a long way on a wire!
We carried on to Cable Bay digesting all this info. The road was not good as there had been lots of slips and the road, by the looks of things, was not the best anyway and much of it has slipped and was full of conned off areas, never seen so many cones in NZ!
Cable Bay, when we got there, was lovely and to see such clear skies after such awful weather was lovely.
We drove back and stopped off to buy provisions for our picnic tomorrow out to Golden Bay as the weather should be good - fingers crossed.
Back to the motel and we had a cup of tea and watched the news and seeing the pictures of the floods both here and in Tauranga was terrible and I thank our lucky stars I got out of the hot pools when I did yesterday as another half hour and we could have been in it all!
We went out to have a pizza to a place recommended in the Lonely Planet and it was really good and you could see the young chef twirling the dough around, very clever. We both tried some of the local beer but it was terrible. Not often Jon can't drink the beer but we had to leave it.
The restaurant is attached to the cinema and so when we had finished we walked out through the foyer and bought an ice cream which we ate on the way back. I believe it has less calories that way?
It was still very early but it was nice just to relax after all the travelling we have done and we are really looking forward to being home and back with Totty who has probably had a terrible time with all the floods and the thunder.
Sorry if there are lots of mistakes in this blog. I am getting very frustrated trying to get to the bottom of the page as it won't just slide and there is an icon 'send feedback' which is at the bottom righthand corner and if I accidentally touch it I lose my page! So, mistakes and all here is my blog for today!
WEATHER
Overcast but some sunny spells 20 degrees
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