Even though I got up at 7.30, I felt as though I was chasing my tail, I had a quick shower and ate a small breakfast. I met Tony, who was Liz’s husband and we chatted about the affects of the coronvirsus. I headed towards the blue cafe and ordered a gluten free beef and relish sandwich. I forgot to leave my car key so I quickly walked back to the house and left it on my bed in case my hosts needed to move my car.
After I had registeried for the trip, I waited 25 minutes before boarding. The weather was grey and spitting a little. As the trip proceeded, there would be an occasional shower and the wind became quite blustery.
Matty was our captain and Bindi was the crew. Between them they shared the responsibility of talking about the history, for example, a woman rowed a journey in a day that used to take 4 days as she used the tides wisely and to her advantage.
We saw a Mussel boat collecting over 50 tons of the green lipped variety, the new Zealanders do not like the black ones. There are no microbeads or any form of plastic and the mussels are tested regularly.
The boat stopped off for lunch and part of the group including me were supposed to go to a farm but it got cancelled as it was too wet.
The decision was made to go on a nature cruise on the way back so we saw a colony of gannets.
A colony of juvenile King shags which are part of 500 King shags that are only found in this part of the world.
A little later we saw 2 seals and a lone toilet on a hill.
After the cruise, I came back and chilled. Liz knocked on my door at 6.20pm and invited me to join them and their friends for a meal. There was a bit of miscommunication at the restaurant with the booking which thankfully got sorted. The service was a bit haphazard as the waitress forgot to bring the wine but we ended up with free coffee. It was lovely not to be eating by myself.
As we were driving back, Liz revealed that her husband Tony was an artist and showed me some of his work when we arrived back to their house.
Autistic Solo Traveller 