31 December 2024

I was awake at 6.30, so I decided to get up-to-date on my blogs. But my laptop started running out of juice, so I went into the lounge and plugged it in. And got up-to-date! And typed this little bit at 8.31 whilst Pen was still snoring.

The Wi-Fi here in this motel/B&B is still lousy, but I did manage to get a newsfeed to tell me who’s got the New Year’s Honours. I’m pleased to see that Graeme Pearce has got a Kings Service Medal. (Doesn’t that sound odd after a lifetime of QSM?) He has done a lot for heritage in Thames, including keeping the historic cemeteries accessible.

One bit of good news, after about an hour, I managed to get onto my emails and received confirmation that we’re booked into Scoozi for tonight. So we’re not going to starve. (Although, that may not be a bad thing. Or to at least find some place that provides healthy(ier) meals.)

The site of the original railway station

So we gave up on the i-Site and instead cottoned onto the fact that the Kaipupu Wildlife Sanctuary, which we wished to walk, was actually a peninsula cut off by a predator proof fence. The only way we could get there was by boat. So, because Pen owes me about $80 (I can’t remember what for – Rangitoto Ferry tickets and other stuff, I think) she paid for my $30 ticket with Beachcombers ferries.

While we waited for midday and the meeting of the boat to roll around, we went to the Whaling Museum. This was a charming little museum, which reinforced how awful whaling was, but also how it wasn’t a wasteful industry as they used every bit of the poor slain animals.

When it was time to head for the ferry, we joined 40 others at the office and were signed onto the boat. I was the first one there, so they went to tick me off, but because Pen got caught by everyone else I couldn’t board until she turned up.

It was a short trip, only about ten minutes and went around to the jetty. There, we were allowed to get off and had two hours to have a wander along the tracks.

Which we did.

It was a lovely little track, with regular signage explaining about the history of this part of the peninsula (farming and then volunteer replanting), as well as identifying plants, invertebrates, and birds. I think we saw a bellbird. We did see a couple of wētā having a snooze in one of the many wētā hotels.

It was one of those days where one minute you were hot, the next you were putting your jacket on, then you needed a rain jacket against the spits of rain, then the sun was shining again, but we still enjoyed the stroll, getting back to the jetty well before the two-hour deadline. Once there, there was great excitement amongst some of our fellow travellers as there were jellyfish swimming around the jetty.

Our first ferry was a monohull, but this one was a catamaran, and I got some photos from the top deck – including of the Ovation of the Seas looking obscene amongst the bush of the sound. Even if it was moored alongside a timber exporting port.

Back to dry land and we decided to try Toastie Lord for lunch. They had to be good as they were busy, even though it was almost 3.00pm, and we had to wait for our toasted sandwiches. (Mine was Betty – ham and pineapple. Very uninspiring, but very nice.) I also had a custard cream donut, but only had water with my flavouring drops as my drink to counteract some of the sugar intake and reduce me expenditure.

We finally got to the i-Site to find out what’s happening for New Year’s tonight – they were setting up a sound stage this morning – and it’s a family event culminating in fireworks.

This morning’s walk around Kaipupu was located on one side of Picton, and there were a series of walks on the other that we also wanted to do, so we got directions from Beachcombers Cruises and started walking.

It was quite a nice walk… to start with. On the flat and following the harbour. Then it started climbing. This wasn’t too bad – even though the brochure said the track was rated moderate. All was good, and the bush about us was very pleasant, until we got to the point that was, supposedly, called the Harbour View. Except that where we found the lookout, in our minds, didn’t match what the map was telling us. We got some photos anyway.

It was starting to rain, so we packed everything of importance away (cameras, bears, penguins), but didn’t bother getting our raingear out. Which didn’t matter as it cleared up within five minutes.

After that, with a short detour the wrong way down a one-way road (which seemed to be what the map was saying), we retraced our steps.

We still don’t know if we went the right way or not.

Whilst slogging along the steeper parts of the parts of the walk, we were saying how an ice cream would go down rather well about then. But, by the time we emerged into the town, it was after 5.00pm, the shops were shutting up, and we were due to have our dinner at 7.00pm. So we figured we may have our ice creams for dessert.

We stopped off at the local 4Square supermarket on the way back to our B&B/motel to buy our breakfast. I definitely wanted something healthy, so I’ve got fruit salad and yoghurt. And this was after finally finding a café that did what sounded like a very tasty porridge.

So it was back to our unit, a shower, a bit of packing, a bit of photo downloading, and then, having donned my raincoat, up the High Street to Scoozi, an Italian wood fired pizza place. There we ordered garlic bread as starters and Salmon Fettucine for Pen and Macaroni and Cheese for me – as I figured it would be interesting to see how it’s cooked Italian style. The garlic bread was very nice, but it was six big chunks, which was a meal in itself, even with us sharing it. The Mac and Cheese was nice, but it was all just too much of a good thing and I couldn’t eat it all. Plus, with the four cheeses that were part of lunch’s toastie, I guess I’m either getting calcified arteries or plenty of skeletal calcium.

Pen decided that she’d like a hot chocolate to finish off, so we waited for the menu.

And waited.

And the wait staff packed up around us and another couple.

And, after a group came in for a meal and were told the restaurant was closed, one of the wait staff chained up and padlocked the gate that was the entrance we all came in. As Pen pointed out, being in a room with multiple sources of naked flames (including the pizza oven), having to exit through another room (the Mariner’s Mall), when the fire station was over the road, was not a good look at the least!

While we waited, we looked with concern at the weather outside. The rainclouds that were capping the neighbouring hills seemed to be lifting, but the wind, which was more of an issue for the fireworks, seemed to be just as intense.

Finally, after we’d done a bit of Internet surfing on our phones, (pity the laptop was back at the unit) Pen went up and asked for a hot chocolate. She was sold this and paid for everything then and there – so it’ll be my turn to pay for lunch and tea tomorrow.

And then it was back to the unit, type up today’s blog, get photos ready for uploading when I’m finally somewhere with decent Wi-Fi, and get into our PJs with our clothes over the top ready for the fireworks at midnight.

Which we did.

Plus, after a step outside to get the feel of the weather – not that chilly, no rain in the air, and no wind! – we put on our jackets (for warmth, not wet weather protection), and set off.

We wandered down to the foreshore and found a place where we could stand on the bank, looking where we thought the fireworks would be going off, whilst well away from the volume of the concert going on at the soundstage erected this morning. (Unfortunately, it wasn’t well away from the smokers and vapers – many of whom seemed to be frighteningly young.)

It was a good, something like fifteen-minute, firework display that we watched over the trees and the marina. Pen sent a photo of the pair of us in front of the fireworks to her Thunderbirds friends, I tried to take a photo of the pair of us, which was terrible, so I settled for having the camera on the handheld scene setting and holding it at hip level. I’ve succeeded in getting some reasonably good shots, whilst still being able to enjoy the display.

After wishing each other a Happy New Year, we came to a few conclusions.

1. One of the places we’d tried to book for our New Year’s Eve dinner was the Oxley. (A mere façade of its former grandeur with a big modern monstrosity behind.) When we walked past at 11.45 this evening, we realised that it was pumping, and loud. It would not have been a fun place to try to have a meal. Even if we’d eaten at 7.30pm like we’d originally planned.
2. One of the places where Pen had tried to get us accommodation, was the Art Deco Hotel, but it was sold out. It was also right next door to the Oxley. I doubt we would have got much sleep during the night.
3. Our present accommodation may have been a ten-minute walk from the centre of town, but it was ten minutes away from the noise of the celebrations, which meant it was fairly quiet. Aside from, for some strange reason, when you were in the toilet, which was when you could hear everything happening down in the waterfront quarter.
4. There are going to be some sore heads in the morning.

We returned to our unit in the New Year, spent about thirty minutes trying to connect to the Internet, went to bed and went straight to sleep.

Steps = 23,096

Kilometres = 15.9