Round the houses

A few drops of rain overnight but nothing much at all - stunning day of wall-to-wall sunshine once I left the cloud-shrouded Kaikoiuras behind.

Heading into kaikoura itself I stopped at the first supernarket I came to and bought 3 bags of mini-chocolates, a notepad and a stapler.........and idea was brewing!

Each time I've driven to Kaikoura (or via the re-route roads) I've become increasingly aware of the stop-go people.  They stand at the roadside rotating their sign from red to green, allowing a stream of traffic to progress through what have been (and are still, in many instances) some pretty dodgy paths.....single-lane highway, debris-strewn highway sometimes no highway, just a gravel track.  They stand in all weathers, talk only to their partner stop-go person on the end of their walkie-talkie (and the occasional driver who winds the window down and chats) and always but always send each and every vehicle through with a wave, a nod, a smile.  They're unsung heroes who keep the road users through this ravaged coastal highway safe whilst the engineers, contractors, diggers etc go about physically  re-contstructing our safety.  Soooooooo.........I decided that each stop-go person I passed should receive a small thankyou gift.......

After buying the bits and pieces (under $20.....such a small price to pay to say thankyou) I sat a while and wrote notes, stapled the notes to the chocolate bars then, for each stop-go person I passed, I rolled down the window, gestured that 'this' was for him/her and tossed a wee thankyou to them (always being careful not to hit them!)

I don't know what their reactions were, I have no idea whether they thought I was tossing rubbish out of the window and I have no idea whether they even picked up their gift.  I hope so.  Even if they didn't like chocolate, hopefully the wee note made them smile.  I'd love to have stopped and taken pictures of some of them, but the conditions really weren't suitable.

After a quick stop on Christchurch to sort something out I continued south via the Lyttleton tunnel and Governors Bay vaguely thinking I may stop at Lake Ellesmere.  Turned out not to be quite the place I thought it might be so instead, I continued on and stopped just north of Ashburton.....a wee picnic spot with a couple of other campers alongside.........and the railway!!  C'est la vie.  I'm lucky I'm a deep sleeper.