In early March we sorted everything out for the house sitters, packed up and headed off for a few weeks' tour of the North Island. On the first day we made it as far as Waiau, then caught the Picton ferry (Bluebridge) the next day. The badly damaged highway from Kaikoura to Picton has been open for a while now but is far from finished. It took us roughly 45 mins longer than usual thanks to roadworks. It was quite sobering to see the huge changes wrought by the earthquake, including large sections of former seabed now above the water level. The kids were very excited to see many dolphins (or maybe porpoises?) from the van, jumping completely out of the water, as we headed up the coast. There was still some snow on the mountains, and the scenery was, as always, beautiful.
We had a very calm crossing then got takeaways and drove to Masterton to stay with Don and Anna. We had a small look around Masterton, but our main trip out was to Mt Holdsworth, where we camped about 5 years ago maybe.
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| Skimming stones |
The kids had fond memories of blackberry pancakes, so we picked a pile of blackberries. They ended up in pancakes and blackberry and apple crumble.
We also had a picnic lunch at the park and foraged for hazelnuts; the kids found a lot. And there was also a trip to Schoc Chocolates, ridiculously expensive but very delicious, the sort of thing we only buy on holiday (and then only 2 each!)
We had a lovely visit, so nice to see Don and Anna and family in their natural habitat 😁
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