Road Trip

Last Friday I went on a day road trip with my friend J. I almost didn't go because of the guilt of not going to work but looking back on it, I'm really glad I did. Life is made up of moments, most of which we don't remember, but by taking the day off work and just submerging myself in the 'doing' of the day, it became a day to remember.

J. had an appointment in Hokitika at 10am so we needed to head away by 6.30am so to make my life easier, I stayed the Thursday night with her. We headed off in the dark and pouring rain in her sports car and hoped that the weather forecast of snow on the road in Porters Pass was incorrect!

Luckily it was, although we could see the snow in the tussock maybe 100m above the road. We had a break in Arthur's Pass and it definitely felt like winter there - gloomy and cold enough for snow. Then on again to what is usually the wet West Coast, but as you can see in the photo, it was a lovely day.

While J. was at her appointment, I pottered around Hokitika going to all the touristy and arty shops. Great fun. Then I went and sat on the beach in the sun and read. The sea was very rough a long way out with big breakers so it made a very comforting sound but didn't crash onto the shore too violently. Surprising number of people just wandering around on the beach, including an elderly man with a can who left a very interesting pattern of footsteps in the sand.

We had lunch at the Cafe du Paris and meandered back to Christchurch late afternoon. A large van had a go at killing us at the Kumara roundabout (weird roundabout - it has the railway line running right through the middle of it) but luckily J. saw that he hadn't seen us in the little car and stopped as he swept past the front of the car looking horrified. So not only did we have a great road trip and talk about everything for the whole day, we avoided death! All in all, an excellent day.