Saturday 11 April 2009

Rude Awakenings!

Just before 6am I was awoken from a deep slumber by an enormous amount of splashing and noises over, under and against the side of the hull. Thinking perhaps someone had fallen in I jumped out of bed to investigate. There were a number of mallards of the male variety deciding to have a fight over the attentions of the sole female watching the proceedings from the sidelines. After some banging on the window they retreated and silence reigned again.

I tottled off back to bed and less than an hour later was awoken again by an early boat heading north. As he drew abreast of the back of our boat there was a cry of “Pākehā”. Now for those of you who do not know, this is the New Zealand Māori word meaning “white man” I did not recognise the boat but he obviously knew more about New Zealand culture than most of the english we meet in our travels. Perhaps he was trying to tell us something!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

It looks like your decision to stay in Hopwas on Thursday because of the rain was a good one! We got very wet heading back to the potteries and it wasn't pleasant!

Tom (The guy on the Black Prince boat at Hopwas!)

Derek and Dot said...

Hi Tom
Yes we are lucky that with no time restraints we can pick and choose when to cruise. Nice to meet you sorry you got wet, thank you for your mooring.
Take care Dot