On the move

Back to sobriety and travelling

With the animals recovering from yesterday's excesses (more below), we're back to the serious journey. Further north from Blenheim today, including our first sight of the Marlborough Sounds - a reminder that our time in South Island is drawing to a close. But a left turn before that, taking us through Havelock ("the green mussel capital of the world"), the arts and shopping centre Nelson, Motueka (where we're now camped and will have another U3A encounter tomrrow) then some kind of tour of Abel Tasman National Park. Remember him? We'll retrace some of those steps on our way to Picton on Wednesday, for the ferry on Thursday to the North Island.

Meanwhile, I have to report an issue of crowding. Not outside the motorhome - where quite the opposite is true - but inside. Whenever we've seen a significant new animal on our travels over the years, we've generally bought a soft toy version of that animal. Not a problem on most trips, but we didn't quite take account of the number of animals specific to the southern hemisphere (blue penguin, sperm whale, dusky dolphin etc) - not to mention the sheep. Good thing the Moa is extinct...

Further afield, some (more) good news from the US. Our goddaughter Emily, studying Performing Arts at Syracuse University, just received her first professional review, for her role as Katisha in The Mikado. And it was a good one - well done, Em.

While we're not mentioning the sheep, Steve sends his thanks for the sympathetic comments (if that's what they were) yesterday. He's still groggy, but expects to be back on his hooves shortly. In the meantime he has a message for Lamb Chop: love your pedigree and style - but please give us more clues to your identity!