We were on the road most of the day, down the coast then inland to a suburb of Wellington. Along the way, the mountain roads were very narrow. A couple times I thought we were going to rip the door handle off on the wall of the mountain because we had to hug the narrow corners. Some curves had mirrors to see on coming traffic. There were few guardrails & lots of steep drop offs. Nina drove the mountainous part & did a good job. We had to wait on cows again. We saw 2 little waterfalls on the side of the road. I sketched a lot of the trees as Frank gave me the names.
I bought some post cards, "Lord of the Rings" stamps, a tee shirt, & a cap in one town. Frank bought a $25.00 Maori T-shirt to help the local Maori. I wish I had waited & bought my cap & shirt there too. I had a cappuccino that was very bitter & a date scone that was delicious.
We played "Spotto". It's a game played in the car in which we make a list of things & then see who can find all the items first. We were tied by the time we got to my cousin, Ed's.
Nina bet me that Ed would say something about her short hair within the first 10 minutes. I won. It took him about 40 minutes. He asked Nina, "Where's your girlfriend?" Nina now owes me an iced chocolate.
Ed was definitely Ed with gray hair now. Annemeike has changed a bit but I would've recognized her Dutch face easily. The girls were awfully cute.
Ed had a lot of beers & then opened at least four bottles of wine during the evening. He fixed us a big, fancy dinner. Fried paoa patties with avocado salsa, deep fried fish bait fritters, Caesar salad, rolls & banana flambay. The last bottle of wine I tasted was so unusual that I plan to buy some when we get to Dunedin & take it home to share with Sandra & Randi who like to taste different wines.
I slept on a mattress in Melanie's room.
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