Friday, January 18, 2013

Honeymoon – We are a postie again, on the Pelorus mail run










I envisaged a quiet morning, cooking breakfast and being generally campy. Up at 6am, dressed, put the bed back, opened all the curtains and started cooking the breakfast before Ali even got out of the shower, I hadn’t expected her reaction to be ‘oh I wanted to get changed’. A night freezing cold in a van that makes you feel a little sea sick when someone is walking around, and a smaller duvet than the king size bed , just wasn’t doing it for Ali. 

We set off for Havelock for the Pelorus mail run, our second time on this trip that we followed a postie, it’s turning into a habit. This mail run starts at 9:30, finishes at 6pm, only has a few stops but is all around Malborough Sound. We stopped at the jetty of houses, some where we couldn’t even see the house. They collect their shopping, their post, or anything else they requested to be taken to their island. It’s another world, to live on an island, many of them don’t have electricity and rely on gas only. One house doesn’t have a jetty! They get around by boat. 

Each stop, we met the locals. One had pet pigs who were slobbering all the way down to the jetty. They knew Jim the skipper had treats for them. Ali and I sat on the front of the boat for the whole morning. It was gloriously sunny, the water was so still and a gorgeous greeny blue. The sun on our backs was so welcome after the weather we have had to date. The sky was so bright, I couldn’t stop taking pictures of the clouds. We stopped at one island for an ice cream, then it was back to Havelock, with a snooze on the way as the weather turned cloudy. 

We drove to Pelorus Bridge, our first Department of Conservation campsite, half the price of last night, with a toilet and shower, tis all you need. Dinner of fajita’s, then an early night for yet another early start tomorrow.

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