NELSON – KEKERENGU/HALF MOON BAY – KAIKŌURA – CHEVIOT – CHRISTCHURCH, 14 May 2024
I wish there was more to write about today, but there isn’t much to say. It was a very long travel day, the longest, I think, of the tour. By the end of it we were halfway down the South Island ready for some truly epic locations.
But, it wasn’t all dull! We rose early and got on the bus at Nelson and then made our way down the East Coast. All the while prepping for a fun trivia quiz. After stopping for a brief bathroom break back at the sight for kayaks, the questions started flying. The method was simple, Josh read the question, someone shouted the answer, and then based on trust, we put our hands up on who got it right. Honesty is the best policy (hopefully!)
Emma and Liam, from the back of the bus, were holding a solid lead with deep lore knowledge, Joseph knew a lot, Jon knew maybe three, and McKenzie knew either all the answers or none and chose the Audrey Hepburn vibe of looking out the window with sunglasses on. I like to think it’s the latter.
What I didn’t expect was for Josh to suddenly announce that I was the winner of the quiz as we arrived at our first major stop along the coast. Meaning that at a larger team quiz at the farewell dinner (Saturday night), I was one of the team captains, the other being the 2nd place player, Lakshana.
The 3rd and 2nd placers won some extra Daniel Reeve goodies. I won not only a Daniel Reeve map postcard…but a Wētā official Ring of Power AND a proper chain that it hangs on as a necklace. I’m now officially a Ringbearer!
WHAT?!?!
We arrived at this gorgeous coffee stop in Kekerengu, and I don’t know if it was the quiz or something about travelling South, but I quietly watched the waves crash and started to choke up. It was coming to an end. Everyone’s love and cheer and affection. It was passing faster than I wanted it to.
Maybe it was just the good flat white and good salty air!
After coffee, we travelled a little ways onward toward Kaikōura, to stop and see a huge NZ Fur Seal colony that lives along most of the upper East Coast. To those of us from the UK, this was alright, other Fur Seal colonies are relatively common back home… that and we all found a dead one. That wasn’t the most fun.
But, the kids that had come over from Florida as part of the tour loved it. They were having a great time pointing them out with excitement, and really, that’s what it was all about.
We lunched in Kaikōura at a fish and chip shop (a Chippie to the uninitiated) and were left in pure joy that we had found “proper chips” outside of the UK.
It’s the little things, I guess!
It was here that I bit the bullet and sent deposit money to Zealand Tattoo in Queenstown and booked in a tattoo session…2 hours after a bungy jump because apparently, I’m a masochist.
Kaikōura done, we made our way to Christchurch via a tiny stop for a coffee in the town of Cheviot. Where Jon “wore” a cap. He claimed it would block the sun… but, I thinm he dreams for a life of spitting bars.
I say Christchurch. It was Christchurch Airport…
It was near Christchurch Airport-ish.
Around…
Approximate to Christchurch Airport was our hotel, and just on the other side was an Indian where the six of us grabbed curry.
Most ordered mild to medium and me, being a true Midlander, ordered a Vindaloo, hot. Jon also ordered this on the grounds that he enjoyed the curry him and I had eaten a few weeks before the trip…
The curry that was milder than my order that night, a Vindaloo.
There’s no sense dwelling on it. Not that Jon went pale as he realised, not that he was last to finish, and certainly not that he tried to rip into me for “proving myself” as I ate with a spoon and he ate by dipping a poppadom in vertically.
4 poppadoms, 1 naan and 1/2 a for-the-table pot of rice later. Jon finished.
Mission accomplished.
– Jake,
20 May 2024
The Long Expected Journey 