From the ferry onwards

I was very sleepy by the time I was on board the ferry. It was meant to be leaving at 10 to 2am but it didn't leave until nearly 2.45. I found a flat piece of floor next to a wall behind some passengers chairs. I had to squeeze underneath their seats to get there but it was worth it. It meant that I was going to be undisturbed for the duration. I put my mask on and fell fast asleep. In such a tight corner and my bag as my pillow I was safe and secure warm and asleep!

I was woken by the passenger address system and I climbed out of my corner and sleepily went down to the van to drive into the dawn. It was about 5am and so I was exhausted. I stopped at the first rest area I came across and I figured that it would be quiet and safe since there were two other vans camping there. I crawled into the back and fell asleep for the second time that morning.



It was around 11am that I surfaced to thundering rain on my windows. Then I hopped into the cab part of the wagon and motored on south thanking heaven that I had changed the wipers on the windscreen before I had left Auckland. I stopped at Blenheim for fuel and then again about 5 minutes after I left the garage. The wiper blade was working its way off the wiper arm! So I hopped out of the van with the rain still pounding on my head and fiddled with the blade and switched it around so the blade clip was on the most outside edge, it was then forced to stay in by it's own design.

The rain eased up and pretty soon I was on the East Coast and the view was stunning. The pacific ocean from the other side! Next land mass South America, what a long way away that was! if I went in the other direction I would end up in South America too, Cool! I stopped for a brief break on a look out spot got out my box of goodies and preceded to make a tinned salmon and cucumber sandwich. I was very pleased at my self sufficient and loved the fact that I had a bowl to eat out of and a Spock to eat it with! My van was my home and I could take it with me wherever I went. The rain had caught up with me so I decided to get going, I was going to see how far I could get that day and didn't know where I would end up. I was driving for a long while down the Coast and I could see a railway track that went the same way. I realised that this must have been the line that Miranda had mentioned to me when I went to see her more than a week ago in the IoW. The views were stunning and imagining it from the open carriage of a train I could realise why she had raved about it. I passed many crayfish stalls all had variously amusing names, I remembered 'Cay's Crayfish' also the trouble these people had gone to to make 200x bigger models of these small lobster type crustaceans, in full colour, often gesturing you in to take a bite outta him although it looked more like it could take a decent chunk out of you! I turned off the coast following route 1 that starts at the top of the country and takes you the full length of the both islands and headed inland. While I had stopped I had noticed a headache coming on so I had popped a painkiller thinking it best not to be in headache mode and driving but as I hit the wriggly hill and valley inland roads I noticed the most peculiar thing. My vision in my left eye was decreasing from the bottom left corner out! I was a bit shocked as this has never happened before but then it was decreasing so much that unless I looked at it I could not see the gear stick or the radio. I started to wave my arm about while keeping my focus fixed on the car in front to see where my sight did actually start and stop. I thought that these hand signals must look most odd to the car behind. I considered stopping but I could see no where to pull over. The road way narrow and very windy. Then I thought that my vision may be failing indefinitely and the best thing I could do it to get to the nearest big city as quickly as possible so I could see a doctor. So I continued to drive while every now and again waving my arm about to see if it had got any worse. Eventually I cleared the wiggly roads and no sooner than I was driving down a straight highway the weird foggy blob vanished and my vision returned. Relieved, I called Penel's friends Heff and Tony Daly and after getting directions ventured on to find their house in Christchurch.