Picton > Abel Tasman
Got up quite early today, we were not due to meet up with the next Stray bus until the ferry arrived in around lunchtime. We spent the morning wandering about before grabbing some lunch at the bakery next door to the hostel.
The new Stray driver is called James and he appears to be a right ‘head the ball’. Good enough craic but seems to be a bit more stressed than Kerry. You always got the impression with Kerry that he was being himself just driving a couple of his mates around and showing them the sights. Whereas James was obviously at work by being extra polite and trying to make things very efficient.
The new bus is much smaller and tows a trailer for the bags. As we have the
small bus we are able to do the Queen Charlotte drive. It is a very windy and
steep road that makes its way around the coves and inlets and up on top of some
of the hills. You certainly would not have been able to take a bigger bus along
this road.
Tameria from Kerry’s bus had come across on the Ferry that day and it was nice
to see a familiar face.
We were staying at a place called Old MacDonald’s farm which is right on the edge of Able Tasmin National Park near a town called Marahau. We had a real rustic night splitting lots of logs and getting a big fire going. It was good to sit round the fire and have a bit of craic with some beer. We got talking to a girl called Claire who is quite possibly the posh'ist person I have ever met. She even used the word “ghastly” in a sentence and you nearly didn’t notice. She used to work for the Shooting Times and when asked is that like the Horse and Hound? She replied “Oh no! They were across the hall, they are dreadful!” he he he he - she was great craic and a nicer person you couldn’t wish to meet. Graham sat down with the Stray timetable and worked out the rest of his trip to make sure he would be back in Auckland in time for his flight home. It worked out quite well in that the three of us would stay together until Queenstown where Jonathan and Sophie would head south and Graham would begin his trip north.