20 January 2017 - Richmond Motorhome Park, Tasman District

A happy anniversary dinner

We had a lovely dinner last night out at a local Thai restaurant, well patronised by locals which is always a good sign, but does not provide for the quietest intimate ambiance. However we returned well satisfied, bellies far too full, the wine bottle empty and indulged further ordering ice-cream sundaes at the Scottish restaurant en route home. How greedy was that!

So we woke feeling good about life and planned a day heading back into Nelson to visit the art gallery and maybe take in a more obscure museum if the mood took us as the day proceeded. I topped up our water tanks, we packed up, as you must when your home and day tripping vehicle are the one and same, and off we headed. Bang!!

The Chauffeur had failed to unhitch us from the camp’s mains power; this was a major! Not only had the permanently connected power cord ripped from the motorhome, the hatch lid which tidily hides the workings had smashed in half and lay in pieces on the ground. Heads appeared at windows all around but their opinions and comments were kept to themselves. Just as well because we had enough to deal with without external running commentary.

Chris unplugged from the pole, we backed back into our place and checked out a couple of repair outfits advertising on the community board in the facilities room. We rang an electrical inspector who referred us to electrical crowd up in Tahunanui, these folk dropped everything and repaired the electrical damage during the course of the morning, the first of a series of unbudgeted expenses.

After lunch we set out to find replacement of the shattered hatch cover; driving all about the area and phoning this outfit and the other. We ended up back in Nelson centre at a motorhome builder who was unable to provide the correct fitting but was happy to fit that ordered from UCC in Christchurch. So the eventual outcome was an arrangement that UCC would make another hatch cover from their fibreglass moulds, and send it over to Nelson when it was done. We would head away as planned and return to have the work completed in a week or so. In the meantime we have a gaping cavity on the side of our motorhome and given the rain forecasted in the very near future and that surely to follow, we will have to patch it up with plastic to protect the exposed electrical fittings. Not a good day!

And nor was it a great day for the poor little rabbit that was delivered to our site by our neighbours’ cat in the middle of this morning’s drama. Who would travel with a cat for goodness sake! I just hope they don’t venture into DOC camps.

We arrived back at camp mid-afternoon and I ordered my husband to sit himself in front of the television to enjoy the plethora of sports events that are currently on, made him a cup of tea and took on the responsibility of dinner preparation myself. I think he has had enough to deal with for one day!