Heavy rain around Nelson delayed our start to the day and we finally bade farewell to David and Sarah mid morning. We drove back in to the city (yes, it has a cathedral) and as we wandered around the main area the sun popped out and blue skies emerged.
The main street, Trafalgar Street, had an international buskers show on and we heard raucous laughter and clapping from one end of it so made our way there. We arrived just as a lady dressed in an outrageous pink tutu outfit was one by one putting her limbs through a string less tennis racquet whilst managing to keep talking and at one point standing on one leg as her arms and the other leg were hoisted above and around her neck through the racquet. After completing her fourth limb contortion and stepping through the tennis racquet, she told a hilarious storyline parodying her as a “real life princess” and contortionist Kiki Bittovabitsch from a lost country called Kazador and she was the self appointed “Kazadorian Kultural attache”. She then enlisted the help of two unsuspecting kiwi guys from the audience, who she had obviously selected for their muscular stature. She then led them through a bizarre dance and a series of poses with them basically acting as strong men on which to continue her contortions. It also included wearing a “traditional Kazador costume” of one hotel bell dinger on a piece of elastic which the guys had to wear, as she put it “low down”. Yvonne found all of this highly amusing and was guffawing loudly, clapping furiously and booing and cheering when required.
Then we moved on around the city, seeing the cathedral and main area. Nelson really grew on us; the city has a very good vibe but we had to move on to Marlborough Sounds and we reluctantly returned to the van.
There are many sounds with many bays and inlets to discover and the campsite at Elaine Bay for tonight was a very small one so we needed get there early to be sure of a spot. The drive took us up and over the mountains outside of Nelson and we made our way along the windiest road so far (and that’s saying something) passing mist clad hills with very fleeting glances of the turquoise bays below. After stopping off at Okiwi bay for a cuppa and a Glenn nap - he really is becoming seriously senior - we arrived at the Elaine bay to discover it was already quite full but we managed to sneak in between a Dutch couple and a couple from Scotland our age. We got chatting to them and of course our story of renting out the house, travelling etc came out and they looked inspired by this. Flinging open the back doors, we sat and admired the views of the bay and out to Tawhitinui reach. This bay is known for sightings of stingrays and, as close to the shore as 2 feet, three very large rays elegantly wafted back and forth across. A magical moment.
The Scottish couple were celebrating his birthday and with their wine boxes plonked on the picnic table, they didn't appear to feel the cooling evening air or the odd sandfly. The sunset showed promise for tomorrow with pinky, orange cloudy skies. Fingers crossed for slightly better weather in our last two weeks in NZ
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| The hilarious Kiki, half way through her limb by time passage through the tennis racket shell |
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| A Tui eating his favourite flax seeds at Elaine Bay. |
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| Beautiful Elaine Bay |
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| One of the sting rays - some 6ft across! |
Elaine Bay looking a lot like Scotland.
ReplyDeleteElaine Bay looking a lot like Scotland.
ReplyDelete