Transition Tuesday

Being on an island, the weather can change on a dime from direction to another and back again – all within an hour.  It’s not always an inconvenience – one can enjoy a rainbow as James did this morning.  Not a bad way to start the day!

Friday is the scheduled day for crossing over to the South Island.  Therefore we’ve begun our trek southward.  First stop was at Hamilton to visit one of the my company’s locations.  Garmin found it no problem.  One thing we have done with her (Garmin) is to change her voice to a British accent and the units to metric.  I’ve found the accent has some authority with me, but I also have an easier time naming her Garmin – I don’t know why.  The metric units have been a challenge in just how soon do I really need to obey Garmin – we’ve made some wrong turns, but arrived everywhere we’ve wanted to go.  It’s all good.

The drive to and from Hamilton was spectacular.  We did follow the Thermal Explorer route much of the way, but did rebel and take back roads for much of it as well.  We were rewarded with views of mountains, rivers and fields of farmland in the same glance.  The fields could be filled with corn, but most often were filled with cattle, horses or sheep.  We did even see some small areas with donkeys and alpaca.  James drove all day, so I did my best to point out what I was seeing by doing my best impression of their sounds.  I was stumped at an alpaca – Sheep say “Baa”, cows “moo”, but alpaca say “   “.   I did attempt a few pictures as we moved along.  So excuse the photography…  Sorry no great pics of the animals, but the shorn sheep were just precious along with the calves and foals springing around hoping someone will play with them. 

Found the holiday park without issue and began our first night in the camper.  We were greeted at our site of all things by the camp dog – a black lab.  You can see that he enjoys having his belly rubbed!  It was good to get a dog fix – but please don’t tell Shadow!

The holiday park has many amenities that make this whole thing a lot easier.  There are the things one would hope for like laundry and bathing facilities, but they also have a hot tub and a large kitchen complete with two gas grills.  So we ran to the store and picked up two steaks and some summer corn – oh and don’t forget the chocolate!  The last amenity of note in the holiday park are the rose gardens.  Enjoy!

For more pics, try

http://picasaweb.google.com/jjpeavey2/20091215JSP?feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/jjpeavey2/20091215JRP?feat=directlink