Family Retirement Holiday - Getting There

On the 16th April 2017 we departed Gisborne for a holiday that Jill (and Simon) have organised to celebrate our retirement. It is to mark the tide change from us organising and paying for family outings to them organising and paying. WooHoo!!!
It is Easter Sunday so not much traffic on the road and we have a good run through - stopping at Bridge Pa (Hastings Golf Course) for lunch.\
Duncan was hunting for cheap accomodation for this trip. The motel in Masterton was very old fashioned. The bed/sitting room had one plug so you could have one of either the lamp OR the heater OR the electric blanket on. In the kitchen you could have either the jug OR the toaster OR the microwave.
We enjoyed our Italian meal at Tripoli - very good service.

 It took us a while to get breakfast in this pokey unit. First stop is at the Cobblestone Museum in Greytown. This is well laid out with several other buildings bought to the site where up to 70 horses were housed  for the transport of goods and people to Wellington.

Beautifully carved in the manner of a ship's figurehead

Some old things I found lying around.

We arrived quite early for the ferry but there is always something to watch, and the paper to read. We paid extra on the ferry for the "Koru Club" type experience but the food was not great, and we had a very loud South African behind us. His voice boomed out making it very difficult to concentrate on a book.

We had a nice little cabin at the Top Ten Motor Camp in Picton and an excellent light meal at Escape to Picton Restaurant.

We were able to take our time packing up and had a stroll around the camping ground before we left.

Morning Tea at Havelock

 The last part into Nelson is very windy but then we met up with the Dunedin gang and had some lunch before heading to 175 Nile Street.

Lunch at Tahunanui

 This provided very roomy accommodation - even a pool and since it had a cover it was warm enough for the young ones to use. Duncan went to the airport to collect the Hamilton contingent while Jill and I went to the supermarket.

There was a hand-over of toys from Alex to Theo

We cooked roast chicken and veges for dinner. Duncan won the 500.