It was 2:30pm by the time we were ready to leave the festival grounds, and somewhere south of Taupo we decided to just head straight to Wellington and try to catch the ferry early Tuesday morning (we were booked on the Tuesday evening ferry). The bottles of liquid stimulant procured (I had to bark like a seal for one) from one of the festival sponsors were certainly helping me concentrate on the road. After a quick stop in Turangi for fish and chips, it started raining more heavily, and we passed the sign warning of high wind gusts on the desert road. Yay. We decided to press on cautiously regardless, and found that driving a bit slower than normal was sufficient to counteract the gusting wind. Somewhere near Ruapehu (we couldn't see it, because of the cloud and rain), a small gap opened up in the clouds causing a beautifully intense rainbow to form. At least, that was what I inferred from all the Oohs and Aahs from the passengers. I was concentrating on keeping the car and caravan on the road. The winds died down by the time we approached the Kapiti Coast, and by the last half hour or so towards Wellington, the liquid stimulant effects were starting to wear off.
 |
| The rainbow out the window of the car as we drove along the desert road. |
We parked at the Interislander ferry terminal around midnight, but there was no-one around to help us change our unpaid booking to the 2:25am ferry. We lined up the car anyway, and put the kids to sleep in the caravan and waited for the gates to open at 1am. Carolyn and I were just drifting off to sleep when the car in front of us moved forward. The check-in guy was bored and had come down early to check us all (about 5 cars) in. Fortunately we were able to change the booking and lined up to wait for the ferry, with the children still sleeping (supposedly!) in the caravan. After chatting to the guy lined up in front of us for a while, Carolyn and I retired to the car and drifted off to sleep. We were suddenly awoken by a ferry worker tapping on our window asking us if we wanted to go on board. The car in front had gone up the ramp and was already entering the ferry and in my confused half-awake state I couldn't even work out which direction I was supposed to drive in. There was no time to get the kids out of the caravan, so we drove up into the ferry and parked with them still inside. It turns out that they had actually quite enjoyed the short bumpy ride. The ferry crossing was fortunately calm. Calm enough for me to lie on the hard floor and sleep most of the way, rocked to sleep by the gentle swaying of the ship. Abigail and James also slept well, but Esther and Carolyn didn't get much sleep at all.
After another ingestion of liquid stimulant, we drove to Blenheim for refueling the car. Since Cambridge near Hamilton, we'd traveled 522km with 81.5 litres of diesel - about 6.4km per litre. The sun started to rise as we travelled south of Blenheim, and we stopped at Ohau Bay north of Kaikoura at 7:30am for breakfast. Carolyn was desperate for sleep, so the kids and I walked up to see the waterfall, then along the beach to see the sunbathing seals and their cute fluffy pups.
 |
| Breakfast at Ohau Bay. James is on the right gazing out to sea. |
It was 9am by the time we got going south again. After a couple of brief stops, we were in Christchurch before noon. Back to Carolyn's mums place, and back to Malachi our cat. Back to people, noise, and busyness.
 |
| Abigail relaxing with a book this morning with Malachi enjoying her company. |
Driving through the outskirts of Christchurch, I no longer felt like Christchurch is my home. Home is where our caravan is - where we as a family are. That is home for me.
I will most likely continue to update this blog throughout the year, although updates will likely be less frequent.
Cheers, and thanks for reading.
Carl.
No comments:
Post a Comment