Lost in the Ozone and Accents

December 14, 2011

Lost in the Ozone and Accents - Nelson

Saturday, November 12^th

Drove to Blenheim, gassed up, and on to Nelson, a nice town of about 40,000 at the “top of the south” , a big retirement area for Kiwis, the sunniest town in NZ, or so they claim – Lonely Planet says that Whakatane on the eastern shore of the north island of NZ is about as sunny, but don’t tell that to any Nelsonites. I’ll let Donna’s journal tell the narrative for awhile. “We stopped at the i-site followed by Don attempting to drop me off at the Farmer’s Market in Montgomery Square Car Park, which we could not find. Since the market closed in less than an hour at 1:00 PM, he just dropped me off on Hardy Street, so he could head on to a gas station to fill the LPG gas bottle. I found the market immediately, less than two blocks away. It was very similar to the Cherry Creek Market, only bigger, about 4 rows of tents. I stayed until close to 1:30 pm, buying Puneea (I might not have this right) stones/necklaces while the proprietors were closing up. I figured Don would be by soon to pick me up, so I walked around the perimeter of the Montgomery Square with my yellow jacket on (so he could easily find me) until 2 pm. Then I decided to walk back to the i-site, thinking I could see Don there. I took a number, waited in line and asked if Don had been looking for me; since he had not, I kept walking back to Montgomery Square, where I bought an apple and water bottle at the “Farmers” on the square. I sat on a bench on the square, eating my apple and waiting for Don, then I walked back to the i-site, then on to a location where Don had previously parked and back to Montgomery Square where the gal who sold me the apple said she would look for Don and tell him to meet me at the i-site. By then, 4:30 pm, I was quite worried. After about 15 minutes back at the i-site, Don pulled in. We were both very stressed out, and agreed not to separate again without a clear plan.” So from my end of the afternoon, this is how it looked. I found a place to park right after I dropped off Donna, and immediately headed to the Farmers Market, which I also found right away. I walked around the market 3 times without spotting Donna; went back to where I dropped off Donna, back and forth to the market 2 more times and I just never spotted Donna. If they were filming us, they would have shown us just narrowly missing each other about a half dozen times, I would guess. I kept hanging out on Hardy street, where I thought Donna would return, while she was thinking i-site. Eventually, I thought i-site too, and we finally connected. Each with a cell phone, and no problem – but no cell phones, so big problem. It really is hard to believe that I never spotted Donna in my strolls through the Farmers Market – perhaps a vision test is in order. Back to Donna’s narrative – “We changed our destination for tonight to Kaiteriteri, where we paid $36 to stay at Kaiteri Beach Motor Camp. We had to calm ourselves, so we walked on the short beach before eating fish chowder at about 7 PM. It was there that we saw a green and yellow tractor for the first time (Don interjects – in this area the Kiwis use tractors to launch boats, and leave the tractors sitting in the water often – it’s an interesting sight, especially the first time you see it). Don parked near the bathrooms and kitchen, which also happened to be where a foursome of 20 something Chinese were cooking seafood and partying until after we went to bed. In addition, fireworks were being shot off on the beach…. A frustrating end to a disappointing day” That ended up being our only real disappointing day of the whole trip. I had noted it as the hardest day of the trip, so Donna and I saw it in the same way– a “scary evening is ahead though– so stay tuned”. We were bound to have a challenging day sooner or later. It was really the only mildly “bad experience” at a holiday park (campervan park) that we had. Nelson actually struck us as a very nice town, in a very beautiful area. We’ll have to return some day, so as to wipe out the disappointing day. Excellent – another reason to return to NZ.

A quick aside about accents. When Donna was trying to track me down and she was talking to the i-site folks and the shop keepers, they said something like “oh, he’ll have an accent too, right?” As an American, we don’t think of ourselves as “having an accent” they’re the ones with the accent right? I love listening to the Kiwis/Brits/Aussies talk – I love their accent – I wonder if they are enchanted by my accent?

Only a few pictures from our evening beach walk to share - not surprising, considering the day - we'll make up for the lack of pictures later.