Days 11 to 14, vanlife, January 30 to February 2, Nelson
After a wet trip over the Takaka Hill, we arrived back in Nelson to tick off a few chores. Despite living the good life in the van, the world continues to revolve around us and we frequently have to engage with it. This week, aside from getting the last few jobs done on the van (namely putting in the new brake pads, repairing a puncture and finding out about why the battery failed last week), we have also had to deal with some fallout following the death of my dad last year who was killed when he fell following a car door being opened on him while out on his e bike.
On Monday, Gordon and I attended a restorative justice meeting with the driver involved. This facilitated process is designed to enable both parties to meet and identify any potential things that could be done to address the harm caused. This went well and we agreed to a small number of actions the person involved could take to address road safety in the area where the incident occurred. Today (Thursday), I attended the court sentencing and read out our victim impact statement in court. The chap was given 11 months disqualification from driving ordered to pay $2000 in reparation, and serve 40 hours community service. While this will never bring dad back, the man never set out to kill anyone that morning and has suffered terribly since. I hope we can all move on now and remember dad for the awesome person he was and not the way he died.
Needless to say it's been a difficult few days and we're glad it's over and time to get on with our next adventures. As I write this, we have managed to drive south toward Fiordland and our tramp on the Routeburn. We are camped at the top of the Lewis Pass, one of the three main crossings of the Southern Alps of New Zealand at about 900m above sea level. A big drive tomorrow so we were glad to get this far south after the delays in court meant it was nearly 6.30pm by the time we left Nelson. Onward, in memory of dad!
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