Richmond to Picton |
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Wednesday 19th March sees some continuing rain but skies are clearing and the forecast is good. With WiFi and a steady desk I have some time in the morning to work on the website. Another Thai restaurant delivers a generous and tasty lunch after which we take our leave from Ajahn Somchai and walk through town. The exit highway is narrow but we get a lift with Dan who takes us to the outskirts of Nelson where we meet two German guys who have been unsuccessfully hitching for over an hour. They are somewhat dispirited and head back into town. We (or the robe?) fairly quickly get a short lift on to Atawhai. It really is not a good place to hitch from and after half an hour we decide to walk on although the road ahead looks little better but, eventually, we get a ride with Eric a 19 year old German taking a gap year to travel New Zealand. He takes us to Polorous Bridge probably our favourite camp spot.. Yay. With the evening so incredibly still the river surface is like glass and the whole environment readily inclines to meditation on non-movement, non-becoming.
The stillness lends itself to quiet reflection.
The good weather is definitely with us again and the rising sun bathes my tent - and the slow moving tea drinkers beside it. I am enjoying the quiet and decide to fast. Venerable Javano goes on pindapat to the nearby camp-ground cafe. He returns a couple of hours later and generously shares some of his offerings with me. Sadhu. We later go for a short walk to the beach area just below the bridge; stack a few rocks and generally potter about. We are back at camp about 3 and continue to enjoy the stillness and quiet of this extremely beautiful place.
We have the ferry booked for tomorrow (Friday) afternoon and plan to go pindapat in Havelock then hitch to somewhere within reasonable distance from Picton to camp. We get a lift with Milan to Havelock. He is very interested in what we are doing but it gets a bit confusing with explanations of reoffering medicines - and existential despair... Fruit kupying? Not today. We walk the opposite direction to our earlier pindapat here and are given a reasonable amount. At the last cafe, where the staff, at our previous visit, were very generous, we get the bum's rush from the owner... such is life. We have enough to eat for the day. As always, the walk out of town takes a while to exit and find a hitching spot. Matthew, a fundraiser for wheelchair rugby, stops and enthusiastically offers us a lift to Blenheim. He kindly drops us close to John's Kitchen as I thought it would be nice to pop in and say hello/thanks but unfortunately it is closed. Again the walk out of town... We spent half an hour at our first hitch-spot with no result so we walked on. Our plan was to stop within hitching distance of Picton but, eventually, we get a lift from a lady going all the way through to Picton. So, we change our plan and stop about 4 km before town and walk along the Whale Trail which runs parallel to the train track and find a beautiful macrocarpa grove to camp.
A delightful patch of macrocarpa trees next to the rail line.
Saturday the 22nd of March is the last day of our tudong. For me, after nearly five weeks of wandering, I am looking forward to getting back to the monastery. Not with any negativity, as the trip has been so wonderfully nourishing on so many levels, but more a sense of 'enough for now' - as my first foray into longer term trips. Catching the ferry is the big event for the day and we figure there is enough time to walk the remainder of the trail into town and go on pindapat. The trail is a very beautiful walk but we didn't notice on the map that it ends quite some distance from town and we opt to walk the rail line rather than the highway which is quite narrow and busy with traffic. We take a break in Nelson Square to adjust our gear then walk on to our first stop, the bakery, where we receive a couple of offerings. There are a couple of large restaurants at the end of Main Street by the Foreshore Reserve and the second one we try results in us having a very good meal. We finish in plenty of time to check in at the ferry. While waiting on board for our departure Venerable Javano and I enjoyed the small sail boat racing in Picton Harbour. The Straight crossing itself was very uneventful and we were delighted to see Lindsay on our arrival in Wellington.
The end.