Christmas this year involved a nice little ride South on the Tenere.  My sister had recently bought a batch in the beautiful Golden Bay and it was time for the rest of the family to invade and check it out.

Lovely Wellington weather....My trip began early on the afternoon of the 23rd.  I loaded up and left Palmy at just before 1pm to meet the ferry.  I'd given myself way too much time to get there, thinking that the Xmas traffic might be bad but all the traffic was heading in the opposite direction.

I got dumped on a couple of times but got to the ferry really early and had about an hour and a half before boarding.  I tried to get onto the boat that was already loading but no dice.  We were warned of some bumps in the straits but after a bit of lurching around leaving the harbour, the rest of the sailing was pretty calm.
Arriving in Picton at around 8:30 I took off through Queen Charlotte Sound (a little damp in places) before hitting the main road to Nelson.  It was quite wet in places going over the Rai and Whangamoa Saddles and the inside of my visor got crud on it causing a wee moment entering a tight right hander.  Well, that woke me up and slowed me down for the rest of the trip down the hill.

I rocked up to my sister's empty house (they were already at the batch) in Richmond at around 10:15 and was in the sack not much later dreaming of the Takaka Hill...

In the morning I soon turned my dreams into reality as the Tenere pootle...