On our way to Hopewell.
NEW ZEALAND | Thursday, 29 November 2007 | Views [582]
We had left Kiakoura on a renewed high from the Sperm Whale sighting, still no Surf for Em’ even at the ‘Meatworks’ a place that by all accounts ‘always has Surf, mate’ we had been told by many on our way up the East Coast. For this day at least, we didn’t care; we had seen a Sperm Whale J J We passed the ‘Meatworks’ beach, which was as flat as Matheson Lake near Fox Glacier; the Mirror Lake. As we were deciding when and where to stop for lunch, our eyes were caught by a sign showing s Seal and 4 km’s on it; we looked at each other? About 1 km after the strange sign we could see why, we pulled over along the main highway 1 to see to our amazement; Fur Seals no more than 15 – 20 mtr’s from this main route. We had seen Fur Seals down the East coast at Nugget point, but they were at the base of a cliff; not on the other side of a fence with adult’s sun bathing and young play fighting for all to see. We had found our place for lunch, parked up eating our sandwiches while watching the Fur Seals going about their busy day. After our lunch we had to head off again along the Surfless and beachless East coast road, but to be honest; it could have been raining with Thunder & Lightening and we would not have been happier. We had heard that the final road to a small place called Hopewell was a very long and awful drive, so we had booked ourselves into a small hostel in Picton for the night so we could take our time to see the Marlborough Sounds while driving to Hopewell the next day. So glad we did such a fun hostel, small cosy and great owners; we will return there when we get the ferry to the North Island soon. The hostel, called ‘The Jugglers Rest’ actually manufacture various items for the Juggling world, and have a real fun attitude towards their guest; even when they disturb their only night off which I will now explain. We were all mingling and chatting away, as you do in a small hostel; when Andy suddenly realised that he didn’t have the key to the cabin? Andy had only walked from the cabin to the side door and into the lounge area, a total distance of no more than 15 mtr’s; but somehow in that time ‘he had lost the key’ So for the next hour he had the both of us, and a Swedish couple tearing the hostel apart to find the key. After at least an hour Andy conceded that it was lost, so he had to call Nicky the owner on her mobile to ask for the spare; he did and left her a message. While we were waiting for her to call back, Andy once again started to tear the place apart; because as he said ‘The bl**dy thing’s here somewhere’ He started to pace around, ranting as he went ‘I’ve only been here, where the Bl**dy hell is it?’ After we had checked, the bins, the toilets, the chairs and even under the Salad on the plates that I was preparing for our dinner. He started explain to us all where he had been, and the places he had not been; one place he had ‘not’ been was the freezer. Oh his face was a picture as he opened the door to find inside the freezer, yes ‘the key’ nicely chilled and waiting to be warmed by Andy’s ‘HOT’ language once he had conceded ‘he may have been to the freezer after all’ After facing us all with this embarrassing and stupid event, he had to call the owners of the hostel, who had taken the night off to go to a Bonfire night BBQ; their only night off since getting the hostel ready to open. Andy was full of apologies the next morning as we headed out on the last leg to Hopewell. The road was as we were told it was, full of twist and turns; uphill and downhill but the views were worth the drive even if we were not staying a couple of nights at Hopewell.
Tags: Laughter
