Travelling to Timaru...
That was when I realised that my wallet was not with me … last place I had it … when I bought fish n chips the night before with the Brays. Hence, to their obvious delight, at approx 4:30am, I was knocking on Perry and Annette’s bedroom window. To my horror, the wallet was nowhere to be found in their house, but after much sluicing, we found it in the car in which I had left to get the dinner (not in my car, just to clarify!)
By 6am, we were on the ferry crossing Cook Strait … my first time … and I will admit to checking out the locations of the seasickness bags, knowing I have weak sea legs. But God blessed us by changing the direction of the wind overnight, and I made the journey with food kept down!
Above: Simon and Kendal in the wind at the front of the ferry. And below: Me and Sue inside.
Monique came in my car from Picton, and you can imagine my smile to see she had fallen asleep to Pillar … not exactly what I would consider lullaby music but she went to Lalaland anyhow and stayed until I woke her to look at the seals at Ohau Point. (http://www.pillarmusic.com/)
Then the drama really began. On leaving our seal-watching point, I was overtaken, then separated from the Stevens van, by a car who had been consistently too far up my backside for my liking. Then literally right outside of Kaikoura, the trailer on the car between the Stevens and I blew a tyre. Like it disintegrated before my eyes. I slammed on the brakes and started pulling to the left, and instinctly put my arm out to keep Monique in her sear (though the seatbelt really did the job) as the axle broke and the other tyre flew off the trailer and landed beside my door, bouncing on the road.
Talk about heart racing! It turned out there were dogs in the trailer, but fortunately they were alright.
As we stopped for lunch in Kaikoura, all the what ifs went through my mind. What if I had been driving a metre closer to that car? Or doing a couple of km’s faster? What if the 4WD behind me had been a fraction closer – he would have pushed us into the trailer. What if the other tyre and axle had hit my car rather than the road beside me? What if there had been traffic on the other side of the road where that tyre landed?
So many what ifs. I can only praise God for His protection over us all at that time.
Kendal and Monique running from the waves at Kaikoura
We got to Christchurch with no more dramas, though Kendal swapped for Monique and I heard all about the boy she was going to marry, the three kids they would have (and on what days and what their occupations would be!). It did amuse me. For a five year old, she had thought this through A LOT!
And then the next morning, I left the Stevens in Christchurch and headed further south for Timaru.
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