Freedom drive

My day began at 1.00am.  Having gone to bed with the plan of getting up early to spend a few hours at Zealandia before heading to the ferry for a 2pm sailing I was woken at 1am by my phone ringing.  It turns out that my '2pm' sailing was in fact a 2am sailing and I was late for check in.....!  OMG......my heart sank but was helped to bounce back reasonable quickly when the nice lady at the other end told me that there was space on the 8.15 am if I could make the 7.15 check-in.  Of course I could!!  So, after far too little sleep I was on the ferry heading back to the South Island.  Sadly, Zealandia will have to wait.  

Arrived in Picton intent on getting my booster vaccination which turned into a bit of a goose-chase round town but was eventually achieved after another wee goose chase in Blenheim.  Heading out of Picton I chanced upon an interesting looking gathering which of course, I stopped at.  It turned out to be what I will describe as the South Island arm of the main event in and around Wellington - the anti-vaccine-mandate protest aka the 'Freedom protest'.  I heard three speakers voice their feelings but interestingly, all three criticised government actions without offering any solutions.  It was also interesting to note that several people saw my camera and visibly hid from it.  I guess they thought I might have been media (another point of contention for the protesters) and clearly didn't want to be identified.  I assumed if people were passionate about something they'd want to share that passion.  Anyway, I didn't hang around long and headed off back to the familiarity of Rarangi.

The extra is a shot of part of the Para Wetlands which holds huge fascination for me each time I pass the skeletal trees that are dying in the water.  

In COVID news there were 202 new community cases reported today; 14 are in hospital and 1 in ICU.