A 'Waste' of a Day!

Woke up to find the shower tray had filled up again, so there is still a problem with the waste water not draining away. Such a pain. So, we ring Maui and they say to go back to our English guys in Stoke to sort it out. Thankfully, doing that doesn't disrupt us, as we were heading that way anyway, to see Alice and family, who had recently moved to live in Richmond. We meet Alice, Flynn and their two young children, Poppy and Jet at their new home. It is set on a lovely quiet street and although the property needed a bit of work on it, you could see the potential for it to be a wonderful family home. It was a really warm, sunny day and our time with Alice was great. We had some lunch and chatted for ages. The children were happy to play with us and Jet, in particular, loved the attention. During our visit, Keith took the motorhome to get it fixed; once again, Gary (the mechanic from Chelmsford) emptied out the waste, but showed Keith how to do it, for future reference. He reckoned that the problem was due to there being dirt in the waste tank that was blocking the filter. So, with the motorhome fixed and the day drawing on (we were with Alice and family 4 hours!), we set off for our final stop on the South Island at Picton, gateway to the North Island. The journey takes us along the northern coast and there are some wonderful views as we twist and turn along the rugged coastline. We stay at a nice site, Parklands Marina Holiday Park, just away from the centre, but near the water. The owner suggests a walk to the local bar, which we do and find it quite busy, mainly because the final of the rugby cup competition was on (the semi final of which we saw in Anakora). The NZ team was playing one from Argentina, but the NZ team was at home and hot favourites. After a shaky start, the NZ team started to get more points on the board (they won quite comfortably in the end) so, at half time, we left the pub, although we did have a nice meal and drinks. Tomorrow, we are off to the North Island!