Tuesday; A bit of an odd day. We had a plan in place but as one knows plans always change. Cory is not working anymore so we change our day around to suit. We drop the trailer off to be signed off for the WOF. We get all prepared to go away packing blankets and strops. Once that is all done we drop Noodly off to have the WOF done and pick up the trailer. We load my old bike and a few other things into the trailer. This is going to be interesting. I hope Camele can handle a kitchen on this trailer. So far so good it handle the empty trailer fine. We head into Till St and do some last minute tidy up. It was a pretty easy going day, nothing major to do or be in a huge rush. We take Leona out for dinner as it is her birthday tomorrow. We end up at Scott’s Brewery which we haven’t been to in years. It was a really nice night. Rowan got a sour beer which he absolutely loved. He even got a bottle to takeaway. After dinner we decided to get some driving done rather than go back south. We got to Wainono Lagoon, which was a great spot to stay the night.

Wednesday; We have a few appointments today, on the road with the first being 7.30am in Darfield. Rowan is meeting up with Andy a friend he hasn’t seen in a while. Then off to AA Hornby to get a WOF for Camele. Waiting at the AA for that to be done to find we need a few things to be sorted for WOF. We book it all in for Monday next week. Then Rowan has a doctor’s appointment at 10am. I sit around in the camper and have a cuppa. It is a bit strange being in the city in the back of a camper. Rowan and I get some sushi for breakfast then head out to Waikuku Beach to see a motorbike that may work for me. The motorbike is alright but it is quite old and needs a bit of work. We continue on and get up to Kaikōura. A quick stop at the dump shop ends up a lot longer. It is really strange Camele won’t start but the light come on. We call AA and a guy comes out to get us going again. It isn’t a flat battery, the battery is good. But it may be a starter motor or alternator. We take it straight to the auto sparky who is unsure exactly what it is as it isn’t happening again. The only thing he can think of is the starter motor. The suggestion is to park on hills just in case we need to roll start. Well that is annoying, we make sure when we park up that we have signal to call AA. We end up at the Hapuku River for the night.

Thursday; Happy Birthday to my Dad! A beautiful sunrise and no need to rush today. Blenheim is on the cards and we op shop around until our friend Jase is available. We catch up with him before heading to Logan’s. We haven’t seen Logan since we left on our free wander. By the time that all happens it is 5pm, time to get to Picton to see Kate and James. Rowan hasn’t seen them since their wedding and I haven’t seen them ever. But heard lots about James, who went to John Paul College with Rowan. James is the deputy harbour master for Picton and moved over from London. Kate is still looking for work as a speech therapist. They have a wee boy Connor who is nearly two. We had a great dinner and we gave them my old bike.

Friday; Off to Nelson today with a quick stop at the Pelorus for an hour. A walk around the river while Rowan fossicks. A cold but beautiful start of the day. It doesn’t take us long to get the op shops done in Nelson. We end up at the Patisserie for lunch which is more breakfast for us. We head to Kelvin’s and hang out the rest of the afternoon and day with him. Kelvin cooked dinner for us. Paula and Millie are in Auckland so it is just us and Lucy.

Saturday; An early start of the day to pick up the kitchen. It takes a bit of planning but Rowan works out how it can all fit in. I only put the glass shelves and doors in the camper. Tony the guy we got it off helps us load it all in and then we get our large heavy tarpaulin to keep any potential rain off. Tony very kindly offers us to leave it here until we go back on Sunday. We were a bit late to the local carboot sale but that didn’t matter as we are not buying much. On the way back to Kelvin we stop at a salvage yard for a chandelier I want for the living room at Till St. Back to the French Patisserie for croque monsieur and baguettes for lunch. Rowan and I pack up the camper ready for tomorrow. We grab a bunch of antiques we have had at Kelvin which he sold quite a lot of it for us. We can’t take it all but we can at least take a bunch of it. In the near future we will come up with an empty trailer to bring it all back. We have Chinese for dinner and call it an early night. I am exhausted.

Sunday; Following Kelvin we headed to the Sunday Market and helped him set up. I ended up finding a Elis Kuappi ring which I was very happy with. It goes into my mid century Scandinavian jewellery collection. After the market we thought we better have one last lot of amazing French breakfast before going up the Aniseed River for a fossick. We headed out to Wakefield around lunchtime and got the trailer and of course a famous Wakefield pie before heading south. We want to get to the Lewis Pass tonight. We decide to get over the major part before finding a spot to sleep. The spot we were recommended was blocked off. We found a truck area and parked up there. Camele handled the weight of the trailer really well. She also hasn’t missed a beat since she decided to play up in Kaikōura.

Monday; On the road at 5.30am. We have to make it to the rust repairer by 8am so no time to dally. We make it in time and go for a walk around the city to waste some time. At 10am it still isn’t done so we wait around in the car park like cool kids