Bikes, Barnacles & a Bionic Arm

Sunday 22 December

Sunday didn’t really live up to its name either - an improvement on the previous day but could do better!

I managed a quick morning stroll first thing - greeted by campsite chook masquerading as a washing machine and the neighbourly bullocks. Stopped to smell the flowers - particularly the fragrant jasmine in the hedgerow - and to admire the lovely jugs of hand picked florals in the toilet block. Mum's favourite agapanthus seem a little less plentiful this year, but maybe they are just blooming a little later than usual.

Louis was heartened by the lack of actual rain and decided to attempt a swim in Cable Bay - the swim but was fine, but clambering in and out over boulders and barnacle covered rocks was quite a bloody challenge - literally! This camping business is pretty dangerous - after only ten days, we are both as dinged up as an Arthur Daley motor!

Having got the exercise bit between his teeth Louis was keen to continue. I had been perusing the map and found a cool area to the right hand side of the causeway at Cable Bay. This area of water (and tidal mud) is Delaware Bay, which is almost cut off from the sea by another long boulder bank to the north east which was marked as Maori Pa Beach. I did wonder if this was a public space as a Pa can sometimes be a tapu (sacred) space, but I could not find much information online.

Louis wound down the Fiamma bike carrier, un hitched out biled and set them up so we could go off exploring, while i made a couple of wraps in anticipation of a lovely long cycle and walk out to the beach…

However, a gentle 10km along the road, we came to an abrupt halt as the road terminated on private iwi land, before we even came within cooee of the rocky spit. Slightly disappointed, we watched a SUPer paddle across the bay, scoffed down our wraps and turned to head home.

Back at the campsite we decided that our cycle ride had earned us a hot drink & a pastry so headed off to sampled the delights of the Cable Bay Cafe - which was adorable and served delicious pastries. Good thing we went when we did as it is now closed for the Christmas Holidays until after our departure. Their pukka tea was delicious, as was my apple pie and Louis' cheesy scone!

Sitting there, a message came through on WhatsApp from my old UoA colleague Ellen “Are you still in Nelson?” - it turned out that she and her partner Ciaran were doing their circuit in reverse of their original plans and they were heading our way so we arranged to meet in town for dinner & drinks. So Kiwi!

We had drinks first at the Vic (Nelson is peppered with Victoriana British historical references, not just its eponym) and caught up with their news - Ciaran was sporting a bionic arm gadget as he had badly dislocated his elbow playing in a Gaelic Football Tournament at the start of their travels. This had disrupted their itinerary, and meant Ellen had to do all the driving and they had had to skip assorted sporty activities as weirdly nobody wanted to risk further complications with the dodgy elbow!

Dinner at Lombardis was fun but a little odd - the proprietor was busy telling off a waiter at an adjacent table as we were seated and we thought is was all a bit of theatre... but maybe not! He then pointed to Ciaran and called him Arnold because of his Terminator arm... then went off on one about not using Arnie's surname as it sounded like the N word and nobody can say that these days (although he then proceeded to twice!) - very odd, because he was otherwise fun and playful. The food was great but I'm not sure any of us would be back in a hurry!

Still, seeing Ellen and catching up with EPD news since my departure was a fun end to the day 😊