Monday March 20, 2023 - Westport to Kaiteritera

Deb here. We'd heard from our friend Sally Fri, who lives in Motueka Valley, and she invited us for a late lunch today, so we were eager to get on the road. After breakfast and checking out of our lovely Air BnB, our first stop was Coaltown Museum in Westport. We opened the place at 9 a.m. and spent the better part of an hour checking out the exhibits there. It was a great small museum, and it helped to further our education about coal mining and the mining history of the area. What a hard life those miners had, especially living miles from nowhere, in a remote area. No thank you!

We then set Google Maps for Sally's place, about a 3 hour drive away. It was a beautiful road, but like most New Zealand roads, super twisty. We passed through areas that reminded us of West Virginia, some areas with rivers and hills that looked like Vermont, and then through some green pastures with mountains surrounding them that reminded us of Switzerland. Mile for mile, the diverse landscape on the South Island is truly amazing. As we got closer to Sally's, we started to see huge hops farms, along with apple orchards.  

By 1:30 we were at Sally's home, which is situated on a lush green property with lots of fruits and vegetables, a real slice of paradise. She has been living there for a few years, and typically returns to the states for 3+ months each summer. Last December she married Peter, a lifelong Kiwi, and they're making it all work between Sally's country home in Motueka and Peter's large home in Nelson. Also at Sally's was her friend Eric, who's visiting for 2 weeks from New Hampshire. John and I had quite a list of questions for Sally, so we peppered her with our queries over a delicious lunch.

At about 4 we said our goodbyes and headed up the back roads (even more narrow and twisty) for Katieriteri, our home for the next 3 nights. We're staying at an Air BnB that has 3 private rooms with bathrooms, but a shared kitchen and living space. It's a nice setup, a bit like a hostel but with more privacy. We started a load of laundry and then walked down the hill to find some dinner. We ended up splitting salad and a flatbread veggie pizza at the Beached Whale. 

After dinner it was back up the hill, another load of laundry, and chatting with the 2 other folks here for the night.