Stop before you’re made to….. True Story……

So had been happily ticking things off this trip, and loving seeing and doing, and after a bit of a drive back down to Nelson from the beautiful Golden Bay, and enjoying the market, I surprised myself and bought a fiction book from the Op Shop…..

I can do this relaxing malarkey I thought to myself. Someone asked me recently about reading to chill out, but I couldn’t recall the last book I had read that didn’t have another purpose, or didn’t involve me taking notes/highlighting the bits that resonated…. When I love what I do and am learning, it can be hard to put it down…..

Anyhoo I headed to the beach, sat down just long enough to eat my lunch at the cafe, and then went to check in for accommodation, oh boy that is when it all started going wonky…. I decided that place wasn’t what I was after, after two nights at a retreat and another night in a friends caravan, I could not bring myself to book in to somewhere impersonal and huge…..

Well that lead to me driving around for the next two hours looking for somewhere, either it was not what I was after, or they had no availability, and I had it in my head that I really wanted to be looking out on the water.

After driving past the beautiful Boat Shed Cafe about three times, I stopped in for tea and came up with another plan….

I had thought about heading to the Nelson Lakes, but had done a fair bit of driving, so it had gone in to the next time pile, well plan b, if I couldn’t find accommodation that I wanted (which I later realised meant I couldn’t let myself stop) then I would just keep going, so off I head out of town towards the lakes, quite happy to get accommodation on the way if I didn’t get all the way, the day was getting on a bit now….

So, the houses start dropping away, and the paddocks are taking up more of the roadside, and nice long straightish roads for driving, and after a fair while as I go up one of the hills, I look down and the dashboard is flashing a big fat 0 kilometres of petrol left…..

Minor panic, however after not seeing any accommodation for miles, just round the corner thankfully I drive up to a farmstay….. #gratitude

Accommodation sorted, (yes the place is called Hu Ha Farmstay!) petrol was on its way from AA New Zealand, cup of tea made, sat in front of a roaring fire, I finally stop.

I believe that The Universe saw I wasn’t able to do it myself, so it had to intervene…..

Lessons learnt – check the gas before heading out of town, and stop when first required, it is a lot easier!

Sat in the lounge at the farmstay I opened a book at a random page, as I do, and the first sentence?

“……you are insane. Your long studying has broken your mind.”

I laughed as I closed it and opened my fiction book, that I will get to read after all……