Tame eels, cardboard chaos and finally some sun.

Unbelievably we have just had a day of wall to wall sunshine and warmth, tempered only by the strong winds. We woke up after a cold night to find the sun shining and steam rising from the car. Our bike shoes were still very wet, but an hour in the sun and an hour and a half in the car more or less sorted them out. We drove from Motueka to Collingwood, a mere 50 miles but on a steep, winding road it took much longer than anticipated. Once there we parked at our overnight accommodation and headed off on the bikes.  Once again we hit a headwind as we first followed the road to Bainham, the last point of civilisation before you get to the Heaphy track. There is a famous, historic store there that does coffee and homemade cakes, so we headed there for a refreshment break. It was signed all the way along the road and we persevered despite the headwind to find this place - and find it we did, closed!  As of 3rd Feb (today) they are closing every Friday, but none of the signs we passed actually mentioned this. Luckily the return trip was much quicker with the wind behind us. 

Back to the road junction and we turned up the coast to Farewell Spit, this time encountering quite scary cross-winds. We stopped for lunch on a beach, with nobody else in sight and just endless ocean for company.  We are going to Farewell Spit tomorrow to do some walking, so we turned round shortly before and enjoyed the views in the opposite direction, with the added benefit of the tide now being fully in.  Back in Collingwood the first stop was for ice cream (does gold rush count as an acceptable flavour Jeff??) and then cold drinks in the garden of the motel.  This place has limitations as the 'kitchenette' is not really suitable for producing a meal - with a kettle and microwave but no sink or shelf space - so we ended up having to go out to eat, pizza at the cafe next door. The pizzas were enormous and we should only have had one between us, so we know what will be on the menu for lunch tomorrow!

So for today's curiosity - what is a 'Tame Eel' when it is at home and why would you want to pay to see one??  Also, any ideas on what a Weka Workshop might involve or why Tata might be celebrating 2 years of 'Cardboard Chaos'?  It's all very confusing for an OAP!!  Collingwood was obviously a lawless place at some point in the past - we are staying in the Old Police Station, while we had our pizza next door in the Old Courthouse. Given that this place has about 40 properties now I assume it must have been bigger in the past.......

You will observe below how much better everything looks with the sun on it!