Christmas Adam

Monday 23 December

As this is a biblical time of year, we refer you back to Genesis and the Garden of Eden - before Eve there was Adam - so therefore before Chistmas Eve we should celebrate Christmas Adam!

The sun finally arrived and we had a busy kinda day. First we turned our hands to a few Banjo chores as we need to keep her spic & span. She may be small and we try to keep her tidy, but its surprising how much dust and dirt she manages to accumulate!

Once we had procrastinated a fair amount and finished the cleaning, we popped our trainers on and headed down to the Bay for the long awaited walk up the hill as part of the Cable Bay Walkway. The sunshine had chased away most of the clouds and the sea was glorious Aegean shade of greeny blue

We set off up the steps from the side of the beach and soon hit the grassy slopes above - already the view from this point was stunning.

Up and up we climbed - slightly concerned about the downward journey on my poor knees - but the promise of increasingly fabulous views kept us going and fortunately it was breezy otherwise we’d have collapsed in the heat!

When we made it to the crest of Sentinel Hill, that promise was amply fulfilled with clear views to Motueka and Abel Tasman to the North West, around the Pepin Island headland to the North East and Delaware Bay on towards the Marlborough Sounds further East.

We stopped for a wee snack, got bombarded by tiny ladybirds and brought our heart rates down before the descent.

The way down was not as treacherous as feared and we made good time - my knees supported by walking poles managed to cope (mostly!)

As we neared the base we got a great view of the Cable Bay Holiday Camp sheltered in the valley - can you spot Banjo?

Realising that we still had a few chores in town, we headed into Nelson & Richmond for more gas connection pipe stuff (finally resolved), a laundry session with a very poor Liquid Laundromt and some (hopefully) final Christmas menu shopping. I also splurged on some decorations for the campsite Christmas tree and a strand of silver tinsel for Banjo!

Back at Banjo, having skipped lunch we built the most enormous & delicious venison burgers for dinner and I made a pavlova! As usual campsite chook was lurking in the kitchen, hoping for some scraps!