From Picton to Motueka - Day 14

Today, the owner of Harbour Heights brought us to the Avis station at Picton Harbour after a very relaxing night. He drove us in his socks with his dog (a Boxer, in the back of the truck). The station consisted of a wooden container complex with Hertz, Europcar, etc. We wanted to pick up the next rental car which was reserved until March 17th in Westport. But as we suspected, the lady from Avis informed us that the Avis store at Westport Airport had closed shortly after our reservation. Instead, we were given the car for the entire period until our return flight for just 200 NZ dollars extra, which was practically a week of extended use. We only had to cancel the one-day rental from Westport to Greymouth via Hertz (almost 190 NZ dollars back in the cash register, good deal!). This went smoothly, just one door down; how convenient such a tight wooden container is! Cool thing! We were assigned a Toyota Corolla with unfortunately little storage space and no navigation, but with a lot of other technical gimmicks, cool! The license plate also matched us and the primary use of the pasture land in New Zealand, in our opinion!

Afterwards, we got something delicious from the award-winning bakery in Picton and drove towards Nelson via the Queen Charlotte Drive (serpentine road!!). It is also said on the internet about this route: 'Navigate through the spectacular winding road that connects Havelock and Picton. This is like traveling through the Marlborough Sounds without a boat.' There was a good atmosphere in the car and fresh air! We had finally been able to wash and dry some of our clothes the night before. And in terms of clothes, we were already on ultra-reserve, without going into the dirty details... On the way, we enjoyed the breathtaking views at Cullen Point. It took a few steps to the lookouts; an older gentleman who looked a bit exhausted asked where the free beer reward was. I said it would only be served after 5 pm; he was visibly disappointed... Along the way, we wondered who this Queen Charlotte actually was. Curious Janina immediately googled and found out that she was named Sophie Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, a German princess who became Queen Charlotte of Great Britain and Ireland (1801) through her marriage to King George III. The road and the hiking trail were named after her, also because of the British colonization of New Zealand in the 19th century. Always these Germans!

When we arrived in Nelson in the early afternoon, the first thing we did was go straight to the 'penguino ice cream' ice cream parlor, top ice cream! Janina was happy, Jörg too after a subsequent coffee! After that, Jörg bought a hydration bladder for his backpack. The one he had brought with him had apparently been scratched on the flight, so it was leaking and could only hold 1 liter instead of 2.5 liters without leaking too much. Finally, we went to a gallery and left some money for a very nice piece of art though :-))))) The artist herself was working in the shop that day and could tell us something about the creation of the painting. Nelson made a nice overall impression with many small shops that invited us to stroll around.

In the evening, we ate near our accommodation at the Jellyfish Restaurant in Mapua, a little fishing village. Although we had to wait quite a long time for our food, the terrace was very nice and we could watch the sunset!