Final Days

I spent most of Tuesday in the car heading north towards Abel Tasman NP. I did however have 3 stoppages. The first was the libes in Greymouth where I spent a very unhappy hour uploading photos at sloth speed. I tell you now nears and dears, the last two bloggages have been nothing short of a labour of love. I then treated myself to chish and fips as I'm feeling rather thin and I'm in need of a lard injection. The chippy was recommended by nice lady in the touristo office and it really was 'as cheap as chips' coming in at a staggering unearthly price of 5 bucks; that's £2.50! There was also comedic value provided by fellow diners, I kid ye not I was sitting next to a guy with 'Jesus is a cunt' written in huge letters on his T shirt. He asked me what I thought of sloganage, without wanting to antagonise or condone I simply stated 'it's a point of view.' Happy with my reply he finished off his chipos and went his merry way. Probably to polish his piercings, prime his pit bull and take advantage of any truants he may find; they'll do owt for a bag of chips lol. I know I shouldn't stereotype but my brain is evolutionary programmed to categorise by searching associative memories. This of course can only lead to stereotyping so I must keep it neutral and not be derogatory in any way; whoops, too late for that;) Final stop before really putting in the mileage were the famous Pancake Rocks, named because apparently they look like a stack of pancakes. Photos below, I'm not convinced.

I have no idea where I camped but they had hot showers:D I rose early, ate porridge and headed off to Marahau to complete day 1 of the Abel Tasman GW. However when I got there I just wasn't feeling it. The track was like the M1, both in width and volume of traffic. I prefer things more wild and woolly and have been spoilt by the fantastico mountains I have had the privilege to encounter. So plan B was to snooze on the beach and explore a couple of coves. Here are the photos.

In hindsight, the colours are lovely. Maybe I was just craving the city life and so mid-afternoon I headed to Nelson and treated myself to a meal at a fancy caf and a trip to the movies. I saw the Mandela movie which was only OK. Maybe I think that because I have read the book which is truly inspirational. An extraordinary human being who transcends greatness; hard to put that across in a film. Still, eye candy was provided by Idris Elba and a good script was supported by decent performances. Take my advice nears and dears, if you haven't already read Nelson's autobiography, put it straight to the top of your 'must read' list. I'm certainly going to read it again.

Tomorrow is my birthday and I am also going to start my final Great Walk; The Heaphy Track. I will blog all about it on my return. I'm hoping to meet some people to have a friggin' conversation with; I fear I may be going nuts;)

Kind regards lovelies, I feel this may be penultimate bloggage. All my Adilady love to you, in buckets. Not long now xxxx