Day 6 Sunday (7/08/2011)

This morning we had TOAST! and eggs in the kitchen at the campsite. I charged my laptop and camera up again while we chatted to Cameron McNee and Claudia. They were travelling to Auckland from Queenstown.

It rained gently most of last night, but it was lovely and fine in the morning. We headed back to Nelson to see if the markets were on again so I could get a necklace I saw yesterday but forgot to buy. The markets today were more the Trash 'n Treasure type; people trying to sell old junk for $'s. We looked for a nice bakery, but in the end, went back to Countdown and bought sultana scones and muffins (of the most fattening kind!) The supermarket car park adjoined the library, so we made use of their free wi-fi internet while we had tea and scones in the camper! How cool is that? Gotta love technology.

We spent the morning walking around a close to town suburb taking photos of some of the beautiful quaint cottages in Nelson.  They are so very pretty.  Also we had parked right in front of Nelson's Queens Gardens so we went for a nice stroll through them as well.  

We set off for Greymouth at 2:30pm with patchy rainy weather. Some way along the way we passed a young hitchhiker. However the further we got away from him, the worse I felt. He was wet from the rain and looked a bit strange.  Fear and selfishness, along with judgement are not good qualities for a Christian to possess! It may have been 15 or 20 kms from where we passed him, but after a lot of conviction in my spirit (to the point of tears) we decided to turn back. He was nowhere in sight, so hopefully (please God) he got a lift and is safe and sound tonight. I really had to pray for forgiveness and repent of my attitude, and still now I feel terrible that I didn't have compassion for that young man.

We arrived at a place called Murchison. Ian's workmate had noted for us (on a map) that this small town has the highest % of single mothers in New Zealand! We saw a very interesting shop full of bric-a-brac, so we thought we'd check it out. We asked the old Dutchman if he had any cast iron pots. He bought out two. One was an old Le Creuset for $NZ18 that we said we'd take. Ian asked if he'd throw in a novel as well for that price, but the old guy was pretty abrupt with his reply. He became even ruder and aggressive, swearing and shouting abuse. Needless to say, we left without buying the pot! Strange, cranky old man. No wonder his shop is jam-packed; no-one buys anything!

We bought potato wedges and hoki at a local cafe, fuelled up and refreshed our amenities before heading off in the dark. We are now about 60-80 kms out of Greymouth, parked in a reserve for the night.

Nelson has some very pretty houses

Ian enjoying a break at Queens Gardens, Nelson

Ducks Bum