going north

Ann and I didn’t actually leave Lex and Ann’s flat until late afternoon – it was to cozy to rush out of! We finished up our laundry, made sure everything was as charged up as we could get it, and I burned some photo CDs for the girls, then we repacked the car, and then we finally thought about heading out.

On the way up, we stopped off at Redwood cellars to get some of their great butterscotch cream liqueur, and decided to try a bottle of mocha too since they had a special for two. We also picked up some berries and fruit/vege from a farmstand on the way.

We drove up to the Motueka salt water bath beach, where Sabrina and I would go clamming when we worked at the orchard. We’d planned to camp there since I remembered a sign saying one night of camping was allowed, but it turned out to only be for campervans only so we just filled up a bag with the biggest clams we could find and set out in the direction of Golden Bay, tomorrow’s area of interest. Along the way, we consulted the trusty DOC campsite guide, and found one that looked nice at Takaka Downs, about an hour and a half from Golden Bay.

This campsite, like many of the others, required a long drive in on unpaved roads, but the car’s still running like a champ - knock on wood. After setting up camp, I started dicing potatoes to make the spicy clam stir-fry the French couple had made for us at the orchard. Here’s where things went wrong: Ann left me in charge of cooking because she’d never cooked clams before. I have a sinus infection, and can’t breathe through my nose. This kind of impacts my sense of taste. I knew the dish should be spicy, but for some reason whenever I tasted it, it just didn’t seem all that hot. So I kept on adding more of my favorite freshly-ground Chilli Bite spice until it finally tasted right…tasted right to me, that is! Ann and the two British boys from next door (who we invited over because it was cold and they had a monster LPG stove, way better than our little butane one!) could barely eat the stuff, it was so hot.

After dinner we made Cadbury’s hot chocolate with Redwood Cellars liqueur – yum! Warmed us up a bit.