Day 23

Drive from Pohara to Nelson. We took hours to pack up, and finally extracted ourselves from the cabin at 12:20, in time to head to the beach to see the Sand Castle Building Competition. It was good fun - everyone and their dread-locked mate was down there building their version of the most imaginative sand-sculpture. There was Bart Simpson saying "Eat My Shorts" while being devoured by a shark, 2 mermaids, quite a few takes on the "castle" theme, octopi, fish, some Noddy-esque cars, message sculptures (ie. Save the World, Stop Global Warming, etc), a "Beach Bum" (naked body, face-down in the sand), numerous turtles, shells and other sea-creatures. The most impressive conceptual piece was an underground labyrinth which invited the judges to explore it's hidden passages - outside it looked like 8 regular holes in the sand.


Zack was getting ratty, so it was time to go, and good timing too - he fell asleep within the city limits, so we had the pleasure of doing most of our day's driving while he was out cold. This is the ideal scenario - in case you're wondering. When we got through to Mapua, we stopped at a new resto called the Playhouse Theatre, and had some lunch and looked at their ducks. Zack was very grumpy because I woke him up to join us - this is such a rarity that it deserves a mention.
Afterwards, we stopped at a glass gallery on route into Nelson. It took us some time to ascertain our lodgings for the night because the stupid iSite staff couldn't find our booking. I went off and found an internet cafe and printed out the email they'd sent us earlier in the week. We were staying in Tahunanui Beach - more relaxed part of town than Nelson with a very long stretch of white beach to itself. We gave Zack the staple of sausage, brocolli and carrots and then put him to bed. We had Thai take-aways, and settled in for the night. I thought everything was fine, but....