Goodbye Golden Bay

After four weeks the time had come to say goodbye to Golden Bay, cheerio to Collingwood and farewell to our new found friends at the Collingwood Camp Ground. Once again we could quite easily have put down some “feeder roots” and settled in for a few more weeks but we must keep this snail’s paced journey on the move otherwise we’ll have to keep adding months to the other end of our ‘grand tour’ of the South Island.

We have been spoilt by the weather, glorious golden sunrises, brilliant blue skies and calm settled weather week after week. We came north for winter and the Tasman District has served us well; 4 wonderful weeks in Kaiteriteri, a quiet week in Pohara and 3 fun filled weeks in Collingwood.

We've thoroughly enjoyed being honorary members of the whitebait crowd at Collingwood, we loved the camp camaraderie, the friendly banter & partaking in “Happy Hour”. We enjoyed looking on as motorhomes, caravans, cars, boats & trailers, all filled to the gunwales, arrived to set up camp and soon just about every patch of grass was covered with camping & fishing paraphernalia.

We watched the daily parade of boats & bikes, nets in all shapes & sizes, rods (for those quiet times) and people dressed in waders passing by our window. We admired the tenacity & passion (or is that obsession) that every whitebaiter possessed no matter the weather or the size of the catch. We loved the camp quiet time, when we had the place to ourselves, when all we could hear were the birds and the gentle lapping of the incoming tide. And then we’d look forward to the first vehicle rumbling back into camp signalling the end of the day’s fishing and the return of the “fleet”, we'd then be keen to hear how everyone did.

But best of all we enjoyed the precious little whitebait packages that arrived at our door & the secret language that went with any whitebait discussion. We learnt the lingo, “enough for a feed” could have been anything from a dozen fish to half a bucket full!

Our lips are sealed!

So thankyou Bill & Shelley for your hospitality and accommodating us on a perfect site. Bill you were right, there was no need to head to Wharariki, the best little camp was in Collingwood! And a big thankyou to Gerald & Pam, Sally & Ian, Diane & Ian, Ken, & last but not least Skin….(or was that Stretch) for making us feel so welcome. We look forward to our paths crossing again one day.