Saturday

A slow Saturday with a small journey to Queenstown. Why is it when you have all the time in the world it takes you an enormous amount of time to get ready? We were up relatively early and then seemed to take hours to get going , in fact it was such a slow start that at 11.00 am a guy towing a caravan turned up at our site and told us he had just been allocated it. It then took us less than five minutes to complete our packing up and to move out. We did feel a tiny bit silly.

The journey to Queenstown was very quick, we went up through Cardrona and over the dividing range, where there were some spectacular views and some amazing hairpin bends which Vanessa and Rosemarie dealt with stoically. The descent into Queenstown is one I shall treasure for a long time.

We found our site with a modicum of difficulty and booked ourselves in. Between us and the next van was a pleasant area of grass which Rosemarie and I put our chairs and tables on and there we had a drink whilst Rosemarie texted Fran to inform her that we had arrived.Two minutes later Julian came bounding around the corner and it was a huge pleasure to see him. He informed us that the grass area we were sitting on was in fact anther site and as we looked around it became very clear that it was. 

We shot off to meet Fran and settled down to a beer or two before they came back to the site we had annexed to watch us have lunch. After lunch we all went for a walk into town down a very steep hill similar to Clovelly in steepness.

At this point it became clear to me that Rosemarie and Fran wanted to have a look around the shops, particularly those that sold female apparel, so I suggested to Julian that we might repair to the nearest hostelry and involve ourselves in sampling one or two of the region's ales, a suggestion he readily agreed to.We repaired to an Irish pub and sat there chatting and joking, sharing old memories and telling each other new stories.

Fran and Rosemarie duly appeared with a small purchase each and we sat there over another beverage enjoying each others' company.

After the beers we returned to campsite where we enjoyed a meal at our motor home talking long into the night and enjoying a few bottles of wine. Always a great pleasure to be with people you have known for a number of years and who you don't have to  engage in social pleasantries with. It is a bit like putting on an old pair of shoes they just feel truly comfortable. 

On reflection it was also good for both of us to have the chance to chat to someone who wasn't family and it allowed both of us a bit of personal space.