Tuesday, March 21: Sunny to begin with, clouding over, with sun returning in Nelson
Tramping: 8.2 km
Genie’s (airbnb, $40)
Despite the late night I was up @ 8:00, had the last of the tramping breakfasts and was packed up and ready to go by 9:30. The plan was to walk to Kohatu and wait for the bus. On the way out of town I noticed that the school was also home to the public library and being shown there by the receptionist was told that for a small donation I could use the “senior internet” access. Got on and messaged Genie who reported back that moving the booking forward one night would be OK. Tried messaging Elizabeth, but wasn’t sure if it had worked. In any case I was out after half an hour or so and that relieved some of the pressure on the day.
Just before Kohatu was overtaken by Marcel & Jasmin and their small car which was packed full, despite which they offered me a lift. I wanted to walk the distance, however, and was in Kohatu just after 11:30. The only thing here is a cafe and I had a coke, had to restart the compass twice because the rucksack had fallen over, then went across the road to eat my muesli bars. In the course of waiting decided I would see what happened if the camera took some timelapse. First tried in “M” mode, but the camera stopped after a while; but in “Av” mode the sequence appeared to want to go on forever. At around 2:30 I packed up and kept an eye out for the bus, but it was nearly an hour in coming. Eventually it was there and despite the traffic in Richmond and Stoke was not delayed any further and arrived in Nelson at just 4:05 (fifteen minutes late). Marched up to Mount St, but Elizabeth was not at home, and then to Genie’s, where she was awaiting me with her friend Chris. He had tried intercepting me, but had picked the wrong bus. With a coffee to wake me up, things had to be organised.
Rang Elizabeth and she was now at home, so I went down and retrieved the suitcase. With the possibility of changing into fresh clothes, I now took a shower and got into the fresh stuff. For the record, the spiderman suit and the towels were packed way down in the suitcase, which should never have been the case; and no deodorant could be found, so that must have been lost on the Heaphy (rolled off a mattress somewhere?). With that out of the way, Genie & I had to decide how to do the shopping, and I had to find some cash & something for an evening meal, if her car worked (battery appears to have reached the end of its lifespan), which it didn’t. So I was given a short shopping list (milk, butter), $7 and a New World card for the discounts, and off I was.
Tried getting all the money I needed for the remainder of the tour ($800), but no go; also $500 was too much. Settled in the end for $100; went to Sea Breeze for a cheeseburger & chips ($8.7) and then the supermarket for what I could find. Back at the fish’n’chip shop my order was ready and marched back with everything to eat my burger & chips with the chooks.
Time to send a spot OK and check all of the internet. Christelle was contacted re the Queen Charlotte tour and we look set to go on Sunday. Photos are being downloaded, tracks will follow. Sunset fizzled a little.
