Nelson - Home once again - well for two weeks.

Walk up to the Lookout over Kaiteriteri

You can't stay away from home indefinitely and expect things to carry on as if you were still in residence doing all those chores that need to to be done.

The Blu Buz takes up a bit more room
as we came up the drive

So it came to pass that some maintenance was required at home.
With mum (Joan) in the co pilots seat and hopefully for the last time Sheryl driving the Suzuki on her own, we headed for Nelson. An uneventful trip in damp weather, camping the night outside Mums house in Richmond before moving into our little sleep out at 177. Our tenants were very

accommodating, welcoming us to stay and also letting us park our Buz in Big Yella's old park, which was a little daunting with Blu being 200mm wider and having not parked it in tight confines before! But snuggly it did fit.

Vicki & I
(not photo shopped)

The major maintenance job at the house that was required after 3 years away was the conservatory roof. It has seen 27 odd summers since it was built with Sheryl's dad Jack, giving me a hand to put the floor down whilst visiting, with the imminent birth of young Nick. And what a good thing both, (Nick & the conservatory) have been. Both good assets.

Conservatory roof needing a bit of TLC
A few hail stones & winters have taken their toll

Bill getting to the top of things!

   















Also on our agenda in Nelson was to get Joan up to speed with technology. With her old steam phone having run out of coal, us missing her texting and wishing to share the odd photo (in time), she was summarily frog marched to the phone shop and a smart phone bought.  With us being in town for the next fortnight and then her coming down to Christchurch with us as we engage in some work with our friends Helen &Ralph, it seemed opportune to get her trained up.

Nice new roof - need sunglasses in here now!

Nicki with Daisy & Lily at the local school
having fun after voting in NZ Elections.

With coming into Spring there was a bit of  gardening to get on top of, but not as bad as back in February. Young, able bodied, Johnny was able to help both Sheryl & I with the projects we wanted to achieve while here for the two weeks.
The buzz of social engagements was heard around the region, having a chance to catch up with Simon, Nicki, Lily and Daisy (not forgetting Rowdy) in Riwaka and check out the Brewery too of course.
Next night was in Tasman with Pippa, John and Annabell.


Then several nights out locally, including a 70th (good BBQ Bob) which was also a good chance to catch up with fellow Kayakers too. It was a busy two weeks, full of lovely meals and catch ups. Good friends make you feel like you haven't been away, it is like yesterday we last caught up. So we look forward to a lovely relaxed Christmas back here, with Shannon coming home to join us. There should be time to catch up with those we missed this time around, and hopefully with a hot summer, lots of swims at our beautiful beaches.

Drinks & nibbles at Kina
with Pippa & Annabell

John & Annabell with Pippa
(taking photo) having F&C's
in Queens Road Reserve

While back in Nelson we had a towing frame constructed for the Suzuki to allow us to tow it with the Bus so we can once again trip together. We came across a few motorhomes that were towing their vehicles and got some tips about towing frames and the Suzuki with it being one of the few 4WD automatics that can be towed with the 4 wheels running on the road. Now ready to head south.

BBB (Big Blu Buz) towing the Suzuki through
the Lewis Pass

And what an eventful trip we had. Leaving Nelson at 11.30, only two and a half hours behind schedule, we made good time travelling to Springs Junction with the car towing nicely, stopping for lunch and catching up with Paul & Robyn for a cuppa tea. They were heading home to Nelson after the weekend in Christchurch.
Onwards once again. It was plain sailing for a while, then it was  Sheryl's turn to drive! Well! Mmmmmmmm. She was only driving for 5 minutes and outside the Hurunui pub we had a blow out! BANG! We don't carry a spare. So it was a road side assist call out through our Insurance company and a tyre man made his way to us an hour later, just on dusk. With the Pub being closed at least we had a large car park to park up in off the main highway. He was pretty efficient changing the tyre for a smart new one.

Poor Blu B - the first tyre to be changed!

He then looked over the others and said take it easy as the other inside tyre looked suspect, recommending we change that too. And as luck would have it, within 20 kms it too went (Bill driving this time!) Thankfully the company had one other tyre in stock.
So by 10.30pm we rolled into Christchurch to our new residence for the next month and poured a wine as we were shattered from all the excitement!