Nelson

18th December 2009 Up and about not much after 6 this morning to get ready for our day trip the the Abel Tasman National Park. We had to get to Kaiteriteri for 8:30 in order to catch our 9am water bus, and Kaiteriteri is about an hour drive from where we are staying in Nelson. We arrived in Kaiteriteri in good time and picked up our tickets for the boat, and then sat on the beach to wait for the boat to be ready. It was a glorious morning with barely a cloud in the sky. The weather is due to change over the weekend, and it seemed we weren’t the only ones to choose today to go because there were a lot of other people on our boat. ...

16th December 2009 In a fit of what can only be described as pure madness we decided to borrow some bikes from the hostel we’re staying at and explore Nelson sans voiture for the day. The hostel is about a 20 minute walk from Nelson city centre, so they have plenty of bikes which you can borrow for no extra charge. We’re staying at a hostel called the Bug which does indeed have its own VW Beetle in lime green. So much better than the last place with a great homely atmosphere, well equipped kitchen and comfortable, proper sized beds :). ...

15th December 2009 We left Blenheim this morning without even having a taste of wine apart from the bottle of Australian red that we had last night - probably not the done thing, but we’ve never been sticklers for tradition :). The rows of vines morphed into rolling countryside once more which finally met the sea in Picton. It was another lovely day so we parked up and went for a walk across the harbour, climbing up to get wonderful views looking back to the ferry terminal and further out across the sounds before we came to a small bay where crystal clear waters lapped the shore. We were walking for about an hour and a half which gave us a great opportunity to see more of Picton, which actually seems like a nice place, rather than leaving New Zealand with the impression that it was a cold, dreary place with a ferry terminal, which is what we thought when we first came in on the ferry about 4 weeks ago. ...