Bumbles Bridge Street Backpackers Nelson

... Kaiteriteri (Ki-terry-terry) up to Tonga Quarry and then a 4km hike to Medlands Beach before cruising back to Kaiteriteri.

Kaiteriteri provided lovely beach and ocean views – as did the cruise itself with the backdrop of the forest of the Abel Tasman National Park.

The hike was quite easy (not like the one I did on Waiheke Island) and I did it in about an hour. On the way, I took some ‘scenic ...

... amp; Campsite’ and the man said that he had a caravan free if we wanted to just stay there…well, we were delighted at this prospect, and full of visions of a swish motor home with all the mod cons - we rushed down to Bignell St. only to be greeted by a caravan park for the elderly - a kind of nursing home in the form of caravans, with a nice little old caravan for us to match! We made the best of it though and cooked ourselves a lovely little meal, set up our ...

... inside. We've learned our lesson though and will immediate stake out our place as soon as we board for the return journey. Thankfully, the skies cleared and the sun shone down upon our approach to the south island town of Picton. We disembarked and headed towards Nelson. I voted for the short route but it was listed on the map as "narrow and windy" which particularly gave us pause given what we had driven on the "normal" roads. I was ...

We don't know what it is about us and boat trips, but we knew we were in for a rough morning when then captain of the ship that was going to take us to the south island gave his 'welcome on board' speech over the intercom. The fact that he felt the need to inform us to hold on to railings while moving about the ship as well as avoid placing our hands in doorways (in case the movement of the ship made the door slam shut) did not bode well... He continued by reminding teachers and ...

... a bit on our own. Took a 45 min walk to the mouth of the glacier in the pouring rain. Had to cross some glacier fed rushing rivers.... kinda fun, but got soaked! I guess we hit a pretty bad weather front so the visiblity wasn't as good as it could have been. Then we drove north to Greymouth. The city itself isn't too exciting but our hostel was great! The owners of the place are world travellers so they have artifacts and ...

... miles back to our pick up beach at Torrent Bay. The beaches are more or less golden, the clear water is a striking shade of green and the fine tracery of the ground and tree ferns and the abundant mosses are evocative of the Garden of Eden (I'm not sure why. I wasn't there and am a Darwinist. Perhaps it was a renaissance painting I saw). The slight disappointment for a coastal walk was the large amount of time the bush closed ...

... restaurant serving them with 8 different sauces; we were sadly only able to try two. Delicious!! What a great dinner - mussels with fries, and bread to soak up the broth. Our next stop was Nelson where we managed to score a room with a "spa", so we've living it up that night. I wish we had sore muscles to soak but alas we haven't managed to go all out yet.... I think I am getting A2 to learn the art of relaxing!

... to have nearly seen them. The rest of the morning was spent enjoying Tonga Island in rather nicer weather, as well as going into a beautiful inland lagoon. Lunch came and another beautiful deserted beach with hot pittas and salad, before we paddled down to our night spot and the point that we said goodbye to the rest of the group, bar Steve and I, Rachael and Carrie. That evening it was great to be with just 4 other people, and after setting up camp in a ...

... bit of driving in order to get to all of the towns on our itinery. The kids did get to play giant chess at the holiday park though. Millie probably knows about 95% of the rules now, though she made sure she walloped Dylan at it

... met Anouk, want dat kan in die bussen niet!). Oh, hij doet het niet. Wat? Dat hoort erbij? Bij een Backpackerauto letten jullie daar niet zo op. Maar de radio doet het ook niet. Das dan jammer. O. (Dammit!)
(Bovenstaand bleek achteraf allemaal wel mee te vallen, de auto is wel oud, maar de moter is nog goed en trekt ons nog knap door de bergen heen. De radio heeft af en toe gewoon wat spatjes, maar meest van tijd doet ie het gewoon.)

Dus: daar gingen we dan!
On the road again!