Pearls On Wheels

Another great day for a ride,  Riding in glorious sunshine The Queen Charlotte Track is quiet in the early morning. We ride through Reader country, Havelock Through the Pelorus valley to the Foresters Cafe at the Rai To Nelson for our obligatory stop at the Suter Gallery, a gem of a gallery with a great cafe. South to Murchison and  Beeches Cafe, another of our favourites  Through the Lewis Pass.  The majesty of the scenery in the Southern Alps always blows us away. So does the extent of the road works ‘They’ mightn’t be fixing your favourite piece of road but  ‘They’ are busy  everywhere else.  Foresters are busy milling pine forests in the Rai, Golden Downs, and lots of other places, There is a mountain of logs at Shakespeare Bay in Picton  Dwarfing the huge cruise liner Celebrity Solstice berthed there All is quiet in Hanmer It’s almost as if everywhere is on ‘pause’ Waiting for the holiday influx. Next morning we choose the inland southern sce...

We farewelled my sister Yvonne and Ken in Waikawa and headed via the Queen Charlotte Drive from Picton toward our first stop, Anakiwa. We passed Nick on his bicycle. It is a cool morning and there is little traffic so he has a good ride ahead and so do we… The morning highlight is meeting several Watches of young people at the Outward Bound School. I love our visits to the NZ Outward Bound School  and I especially enjoy listening to students as they recount their experiences and reveal what they have discovered about themselves and as they talk of their hopes for the future. It gives me great hope. Baker Watch are ready to do their service activity. Gloves, spades, pruning shears, grubbers... Shackleton and Hillary Watches  are preparing to set off on the cutters. Sailing and rowing lie ahead. This brings back memories of my experience in Cobham Watch in 2004. Meanwhile Baker Watch have begun their service activity and quickly have the gardens tri...