Motueka to Westport
This post is out of sequence because although I wrote it ,it was not published for some reason only the computer understands.



And so the travelling begins we were away late as I let Rosemarie sleep in. I had to get up at seven thirty but when I returned Rosemarie was peacefully asleep so I left her that way and we eventually got up at eight fort five. We bot felt a bit guilty, all this great country to see and both of us so tired. Still at least we felt refreshed.
We got away about eleven and stopped for petrol before heading off down a different road which took us away from Nelson. We passed through the most delightful valley which truly could have been Hobbit land. A beautiful winding river, hop fields, apple and cherry orchards and wonderful mountains looming in the distance.
We had lunch in a smal secluded grove under a few trees and felt very pleased with ourselves as we got to know the van and got to grips with camping again. This is a lifestyle we love, although we are not used to doing it with a three ton van in tow. Vanessa the van, to be blunt has seen better days and she is a little battered and bruised. On our first inspection we noted several dents that the guy who had inspected it had not put on his sheet. The copy we eventually got looks like someone has drawn all over it. She has done a 173000 kilometres and her engine may well also have seen better days, so it is back to driving school, double declutching , steering with both hands on the wheel at ten to two and keeping a very close eye on her rear as we negotiate corners.
All in all it is good fun and we are very happy. After lunch we had to choose between whether to head straight to Westport or to go further south to Greymouth. Westport was the unanimous decision. We arrived via a magnificent gorge, named after the river Buller, think he was a nineteenth century general, found a good supermarket, marvelled at how much cheaper NZ is than Australia and made our way to our camp site, where we settled in, read for a while in the sun, when the sun goes in it does get cold, prepared our tea, a Chinese pork dish, gourmet cooking all around, washed up, read again and went to bed. I forgot to mention that we also had a walk on the beach which had grey volcanic sand like talcum powder. A deserted beach full of drift wood and us, one jogger, two do walkers and miles of windswept sand abutting a huge ocean, which led us to the discussion of where you would land if you sailed in a straight line off the west coast . We eventually settled on Japan. Isn't it good after four months travelling we can still have exciting and stimulating conversation.