and then you drive for a few hours and realise the fun isn't going to start for quite awhile.
You arrive in Kaikoura and pass the crest of the hill where you got your first ever speeding ticket and you look out over the bay where the mountains meet the sea thinking how nice it would be to live in a seaside town where the sun shines and the wind is scented with sea salt and kelp even if the cops are mean spirited.
But I don't stop because I'm looking forward to the work hard, play hard fun ahead of me.
Besides the scenery only improves as you go north.
and you practise unsafe driving because you are too lazy to pull over to take photos.
It's not really dangerous, the speed is limited to a slow 80kms all the way along the coast and I have cruise control. I think it's slow because people tend to drive off the edge of the island a bit otherwise it's to avoid people who stop to take photos and it's easy to run up their backsides. How virtuous am I? 
But you have to stop at The Store and enjoy the sun, actually I go there to enjoy the deck. I have this thing about decks. I love huge, wrap around decks that are like outdoor rooms.
In fact the outdoor rooms were in use quite a lot with a group Muslim men stopping to eat. Of course I stumbled upon them three times, not meaning to interrupt them but doing so anyway. They all looked up and weren't exactly smiling, actually they weren't smiling at all.
It was a little like walking into a country pub where everyone stops what they are doing and stares. If you haven't experienced this, let me know and I'll direct you to a few choice pubs so you can treasure that experience. Please realise that I am aware that I'm being ironic in comparing a group of polite Muslim men picnicking to a group of marginally feral South Island pub dwellers.
Then I take a wee walk down the stairs to the beach. I love these stairs.
and I love these cabbage trees (I must do a cabbage tree tribute post (must also do an NLP post to explain all the love)) and the blue, blue ocean.
Then you drive and drive and get to Marlborough. It's dry and hilly and really dry and there is a hot wind blowing and it's fantastic cause it's hotter than Methven (to be fair Methven weather is fine, it's the office that is a fridge. Can't wait for winter, oh joy) and you know Blenheim is just around the corner only there are lots of corners so it takes awhile.And then you put your camera away and forget to take it out until you start driving back. Never fear I'll nick photos from work. Rozzy won't mind, I'm sure.
So on Sunday you drive back home, which seemed faster than driving up. It's not usually like that for me.
And get to Kaikoura, only this time there aren't really fun times ahead,so you stop and enjoy the scenery.
And this little beggar who waddled up to my car and the English tourists were standing alarmingly close to the seal. I wondered how many tourists got injured by seals each year cause I remember a nasty sea lion (different creature I know) who would not let me past him when I walked from South Bay to Kaikoura along the rocky coast, or rather walked to the sea lion and back to South Bay. Those lumbering and waddling animals move lightening fast when it suits them. As if it wasn't hard enough to walk on the rocks.
Then to end this post is this photo of one of two pairs of tunnels.
New Zealand isn't like stylish, streamlined Europe where they just build bridges and tunnels to fit their roads around and through the mountains. We here only disrupt the landscape when we have to and like to have serious drops off the side of the road into the ocean. I remember racing along this coast road in the dark and almost coming off it.
That was before the speed limit(ed) was reduced to 80. Hmmmmm....
I love tunnels. I like to think of the other side as a brand new world.
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