31st October – Mckee Reservoir to Nelson to Picton

We had a nice last morning in the campsite, going through the map and being given hints about where to go in the north island.

We planned to get a few mainly car-related chores done and Matt wanted to see Nelson so we headed there. We found a new indicator stalk at a breakers so we could get finally get rid of the one which was held together with cardboard. Feeling like we were on a roll we thought we should also get round to getting the wheels aligned since Matt has been complaining about the car pulling to the left since we set off.

Pulling into the mechanic’s, they immediately pointed out that one of the tyres needed changing because it was all worn on one side. We kicked ourselves for having left it so long but it wasn't safe to drive on so we had no choice. By the time we’d finished discussing it, the half hour slot they were going to squeeze us into had dwindled and so we needed to leave the car with them for a few hours.

Since we were looking at spending $500 in car stuff and ferry tickets for the day, we wanted to avoid the shops and so took a walk to the ‘centre of New Zealand’. It was a nice, steep, zig-zagged walk to the top of the hill and a 360⁰ view of the city looking like it had crawled out of the sea and spread out over the land. All of the cities we’ve seen in the South are low-rise and look less built up than UK towns. The only one that wasn’t was Christchurch and that has certainly changed now.

We circled the hill and came out at the other side of town near the Japanese gardens. We’d just finished a very pleasant look around when we got the call to say that the car was ready. We wandered back past rows of beautiful cottages, decorated with resplendent, colourful flowers and creepy Halloween decorations.

I just couldn’t get my head around having Halloween in the bright sunshine but it didn't seem to dampen the spirits of the groups of people out trick or treating later in the evening – though I do wonder if it puts more of an emphasis on having a decent costume when people can actually see them.

The day had flown by and we lost a few hours of the evening on the never-ending road to Picton. It was well signposted so we didn't use the map and only later realised that the main road took the most circuitous route possible. With a 5am start for the ferry, we didn't waste much time in getting to bed.