Motueka, NZ

Another good but very long day. We had breakfast with the entire gang at Nikau Lodge; others staying there included a musician from Auckland and his friend who flew in from somewhere to hear the band, a couple from the UK living in Cypress for the last 20 years, a couple from Amsterdam, and the owners Ian and Sophie. The breakfast seemed pretty standard for this area: cereal, eggs and bacon if requested, yogurt, a single type of fruit, toast, tea and/coffee and orange juice (just like back home). Once we got packed John and Ian spent about an hour talking about and reconfiguring our trip. We made a couple changes to our itinerary because Ian really knows the south island even leading and organizing bike tours and his partner Sophie knows the best places to stay and the best restaurants. Ian and Sophie have Nikau Lodge up for sale because they have bought a B&B in France which they plan to open in 2011. We said goodbye to Sophie, Ian and Buddy (jack russell terrier) around 12:30 and started our long drive north. We made two stops along the way on Sophie's recommendation one at a seal colony and the other at a really good restaurant called the Shop for lunch. The lunch was terrific except for the scary "attack" gulls. After lunch we were in for about 4 more hours of driving. Something I learned about NZ today, there is no freeway/interstate system. The roads are two lane highways and you must remember to drive on the left side. The speed limit in most spots is between 80-100 KM about 45-63 mph. The roads we took were scenic but twisty turny and at times dizzying but fortunately the weather was warm and sunny so you couldn't have asked for better conditions for such a long and unfamiliar drive. We arrived into Motueka at around 6:30 and got checked into the Nautilus Lodge Motel. The front desk attendant is fantastic she got us settled into our room and armed with maps, directions, recommendations and even made sure we had our choice of milk... yep milk whole or "trim." I don't recall being given a bottle of milk upon check in but I guess that's a thing they do around here (we bought cereal at the supermarket after dinner). Our room is very nice with a flat screen TV, fridge, microwave, and balcony. Motueka seems like a hippie or crunchy granola kind of town. The people seem happier here than back in the US everyone seems to smile and everyone is incredibly polite. Our hotel is on High Street the main street in town so we can walk to a big super market, restaurants and cafe, movie theatre, and even a sporting goods store where I hope to find the rugby shirt for Richard later today. Speaking of rugby, a match was just wrapping up in town when we arrived between Auckland (north island) and Canterbury (south islands) so fans flooded the restaurants around 7:00. Back to the hotel around 9:00 and lights out because tomorrow we're heading out on a 4 hours hike and have to get the water taxi by 8:00 AM. Cheers.

The picture was actually taken the day before. Because it's so goofy I had to find a place to post it! People think seals are lazy because they sleep so much, but they hunt for up to 5 days at a time and to the point of absolute exhaustion.