Hark at 'ee - information by the medium of tale - 30/4/09

The Owl and the Pussycat
At Shambaala, Golden Bay we happened upon a French mademoiselle named Anne. Emily and Anne struck a friendship that saw them take to the seas, in a beautiful complimentary dinghy. They ventured into the breaking waves barely equipped with rowing knowledge, let alone honey. In waves of up to two feet they tamed the ocean in a manner reminiscent of King Canute, and provided ample opportunity for the broken wristed dry footed paparazzi prowling on the shore (see picture proof). The bounties of seafaring adventure were minimal (garlic mussels though), but the quiz team name of “the owl and the pussycat” was born, and demonstrated a more general intellect with a victory at the Mussel Inn pub quiz that evening (with assistance from our dutch and kiwi comrades).

Hitching Success
Golden Bay felt beautifully isolated (even for New Zealand), having ascended and descended a huge pass to get in. Hence it took a couple days (and some hefty mussel consumption) to muster the motivation for the return leg. After loading up it began quickly with a bareknuckle drive down the unsealed 2km to the main road (meditation teacher at the wheel), then a short ride with a local dairy farmer, before re-living childhood in the back of a car with the greater hits of Dire Straits (surely a proud indulgence or two YFOS fans?). The next step saw a lift from a Hertfordshire Hiker, over the Takaka Hill Highway and down to Motueka. Young family Rob, Roberta and Liam then took us to the outskirts of Nelson, where a good chap surprised his family by dropping us out in central Nelson as they awaited his lift.
The next stage of the journey (to Picton) was assisted hugely by climber Stacey on her way to Blenheim, leaving only a short ride from an older couple - in fine comfort, other than the perfume intensity and lipstick on the teeth. The chat was reasonable, although a strong south island bias!
The beauty of having a nice black fibre glass cast, is that using a stone (or better still chalk/ tippex) one can write destinations on the cast for thumbing a lift.....e.g. "anywhere but Picton....".
Road Music
Thanks to Ben, Pete & Nikki for the lends: Blur - Best Of (so not as many fillers as their others), Beatles - Love, Modest Mouse, DJ Shadow (night time driving), Dire Straits (day time driving without irony), Flaming Lips, Blondie (queue singstar Emily), Mint Chicks, Black Seeds (attempts to get into some NZ craft), Bright Eyes, Radiohead, Talking Heads, Supergrass (difficult third album), the Strokes, the Smiths (will one ever bore?), Roots Manuva (Sinny sin sins at christian camp - no i didn't!), Jurassic 5, Jeff Buckley, Hot Chip.