Gordon and Kay start their Adventures

Well another hot sunny day today. This weather has been more like February weather (mid summer) than early January ....but we are not complaining!

It was an early start this morning for Godon kay and I. The were picking up their campervan in Picton which is a 2 hour drive from here and were booked on the Interislander ferry at 1.15pm. We left here at 7.30am so that we could stop off at the market in Nelson to have a look. The market takes place every Saturday and is a mixture of fresh foods and lots and lots of local crafts from local artists. It was great being there so early as there was room to move and browse at ease. I have never managed to get there before 9am so it was all very noval for me too!!

The drive through to Picton is about 1 hour 45 minutes so we gave ourselves plenty time to ensure we were at the campervan pick up point by 10.30am. Its a pleasant drive firstly through the hills north of Nelson (lots of pine trees!), then the dairy farms of the Rai valley and the last 20 odd kms are through the Marlborough vineyards (Montana wine etc.

We arrived at Picton with plenty time to spare and picked up the campervan without any hitches - well apart from an almighty scrapping noise as Gordon drove the van out of the drive of the hire office!! It brought everyone running but luckily no damage was found. We think it was just the step of the van hitting the kerb. The have a very nice new Mercedes 3 berth van with only 3000km on the clock. It has a toilet, shower, mircrowave and even a TV with a DVD player and a little satelitte dish on the roof! Not that Gordon and Kay will have anytime to watch the telly!

Once we picked up the van we went to a local cafe for some coffee and chocolate brownie and then they were off! I left them queueing up to go through the checkpoint before they got on the ferry. I forgot the camera so don't have any pictures but Gordon has some - I will post them on the blog when they get back.

Mum and the boys (including Tom) had a quiet day in the garden pottering around. Late afternoon they all went down to the school swimming pool so the boys could cool down.