New Zealand Journal 3 – Costa Ruby

The pandemic’s progress has crept closer. The New Zealand government is saying that over 70’s and the vulnerable should stay at home as much as possible now. Easy to say but perhaps not so easy to follow when living with a younger family. The reality of being considered ‘vulnerable’ is difficult to accept, a little like the surprise I felt when I was first offered a seat on public transport, I forget that I am obviously ‘elderly’ now!

Today we are in Mapua, south of Nelson in ‘Costa Ruby’, an AirBnB almost on the beach in Ruby Bay. A very smart place with original 70’s designer furniture in a very modern setting with a glass screened deck and a hot tub in the garden. We sleep to the sound of waves breaking on the shore and in the mornings a Tui perches in a tree, chattering and making it’s strange calls, like the sound of an old dial-up modem at times. We have heard them before but never seen one until now.

We went into Nelson for some essential supplies not available in Golden Bay and some warmer clothing. We didn’t pack for the chilly mornings and evenings as autumn moves in here. Fortunately the clothing shops are discounting heavily to encourage sales. The city was quiet and we did our best to keep our distance in the shops. There are some fine 19th century and 1930’s Art Deco style buildings around its grid-pattern streets and I would have liked to have been able to spend more time to sketch some of them.

We will be back in Takaka tomorrow and will wait until we get information from the airlines to decide if we may need to consider returning home earlier than planned, but we couldn’t be in a much safer place anyway.