Driving Our Home for Christmas...

Friday 20 December

A grey and wet morning dawned in Momorangi so with a strict 10 o’clock deadline for check out, we had an early breakfast, pottered about, packed up and left around 9.45. The weather did not improve much as we headed west to Cable Bay via Havelock. Took a brief pause at Mahakipawa Bay - once a thriving port in late 19th & early 20th century and know as Ballast Bay as ships would arrive loaded with ballast and dump tons of rocks into the harbour before loading up with timber to sail home with. Hard to imagine when you see how far the tide goes out today.

Havelock was home to Earnest Rutherford and Sir William Pickering - both extremely eminent scientists - but chose instead to celebrate its claim to fame as the Green Shell Mussel Capital of New Zealand!

Leaving the Sounds we crossed into hilly territory shrouded in low cloud, rain & mist and finally arrived at Cable Bay in similarly wet weather, one minute before our afternoon check-in time! We have 6 days here, including our first Christmas with just the two of us.

Our pitch at the campsite was quite tricky and required alot of teamwork on the UHF radios as it was in a dip that required reversing into around a fencepost on the right whilst avoiding stones and a sharpish slope on the left - plus Louis got to try out the Tug for the first time. This awesome gadget is an powered jockey wheel which allows you to steer the caravan into tricky spaces where a vehicle struggles to fit.

Once in, we decided to brave the rain and go exploring. It was VERY wet!

Cable Bay is at the end of the road - except for a causeway going across to Pepin Island which sadly is privately owned and not open to visitors. I was getting serious Famous Five vibes and can only speculate on what particular mysteries they are trying to hide over there!!!

The rain may have been unpleasant and disappointing, however, it had the most amazing affect on the stones on the pebble bank which made up the beach - the colours and textures looked so shiny & vibrant.

After a wee siesta the clouds cleared leaving a beautiful evening and we had dinner beside Banjo (being observed by our neigbourly bullock friends - fortunately we were not eating beef) before I headed back to watch the sunset and make the most of Golden Hour.