On Tuesday morning, Buzz did his traditional first day back 10K walk around the perimiter of Feilding. In the past I have done it with him, but not this time. He did it in 1.5 hours. I would have been left in the dust! It was just a quiet day. We went into town and walked around the the CBD..not much has changed. Buzz walked through the Manawatu Gorge track with Max on Wednesday. It is about a 3.5 hour walk through the bush. The gorge is one of the few in the world that can boast a railway line on one side of the river and an auto road on the other. The auto road has been closed since August due to a colossal slip. We were told that the Americans offered to build a road through the gorge at the time of WWII, but the NZ government declined the offer...oh well. The cost to fix the road now is expected to be about 10 million dollars. While Buzz was out hiiking, I got the laundry done, and we have bought some groceries for our travels in the South Island. Our usual routine is to make breakfast in our motel or cabin where we are staying, pack a picnic lunch, and eat dinner out somewhere. We set out for Wellington around 10am on Thursday. If you drive straight through, it takes about 21/2 hours from Feilding to Wellington. We got there at 4:45! There were the usual stops for looking around small towns and a picnic lunch. We drove out to Waitarere Beach to see the site of the wreck of the Hydrabad a huge sailing ship that was built in England in 1895 and ran aground in NZ in 1898. There isn't much to see, but it was a good walk along the beach. At Foxton, we stopped in the Maori Design Centre to see a wonderful exhibition of weaving. The women working were very informative. Students can get a bachelor's degree in Maori Culture and Craft. None of the items on exhibit was for sale...too bad. We checked in at the Interislander Ferry Terminal just before 5PM and were away just after 6:30. The ferry, Arahura, takes people, cars, trucks, campers, etc. It was a smooth, three hour ride, but the air was cool. We stayed inside except for a little while to see the beautiful sunset. We arrive in Picton just before 10PM and checked into the Jasmine Court for a good night's sleep before heading south. On Friday we had a leisurely drive from Picton through Blenheim where we stopped in the library to ckeck email, through the Awatere Valley, and on to the Kaikoura District where we stopped for a picnic by the sea and a scenic route detour...even though we think every road is scenic! Around 4PM we decided we should look for a place to stay; so we turned off the main road at Cheviot and found a lovely retreat at the Gore Bay Lodge in Gore Bay. The lodge is right acfross from the sea. We took a walk on the beach, had a picnic supper in our room, and an early night. Today started out perfectly. I woke early and saw a lovely sunrise having a cup of tea wrapped in a fleecy roboe provided by the lodge (me,not the cup of tea, wrapped in the robe..for the grammarians among you). We packed up and were away around 9:30am. The day was pretty uneventful. We stopped at a couple of farmers markets and 2nd hand shops. We drive through part of Christchurch... You can see some of the distruction from the earthquakes, but the CBD is closed to traffic. South of Christchurch we stopped for lunch at the Dunsandel Cafe. A little later, we pulled off the road for me to get something out of the boot (trunk) of the car. Evidently I didn't close the boot completely. We stopped a little further down the road to shut the boot. We had planned to stop in Timaru to sleep tonight, but found that there is an auto race on this weekend and not a room to be had. We drove on to Waimate and got a room at the Kingswood Motel. When we checked in, I asked the proprietor if there was an internet connection. He suggested I try it in the office which I did. Imagine my surprise to find an email from someone I didn't know with "I found your backpack" in the subject line. A woman found our backpack back where I had left the boot open. I called her, thanked her,. and tomorrow morning we will leave Waimate early and retrace our trip almost two hours north to retrieve the backpack. Needless to say, I got really upset and Buzz remained his unflappable self. I am so glad I had our email address on a tag on the bag. We will have to rethink our route to be in Queenstown on the afternoon of the 23rd, but it is a small thing compared to the possible loss of our pack and its contents. More adventures next week!!