Amber Court Motor Lodge Nelson

... of new zealand have made me want to shrug off the last little bit of doubt, to actually trust that people are inheriently good. brooks and i were watching a dvd of this scottish comedian billy conolly and he had a bit where he talked about coming to america and how like zombies we all say "have a nice day" "you're welcome". and that's horribly true. we don't actually mean have a nice ...

... which turned out to be a good thing since they already had a fire going in the little stove, letting us pass out in warmth.

The third day was much better, shorter at about 14 km and with easier terrain. It started with an estuary crossing at low tide. We had to cross several streams running through the wide stretches of sand, so we took of our shoes and rolled up our pants. The water was amazingly cold; it felt like I dipped my feet in freezing fire. At one ...

... for example, there was one scene which depicted a plane having flown into a tree where it was lodged, and the landscape around was all covered in snow. It was a very enjoybale visit.

We then quickly stopped in on Cloudy Bay winery where we tried a few wines and then purchased a bottle of Sauvignon blanc (Jimmy very kindly volunteered to drive so I was a little merry). In the evening we drove to Picton where the ferry to the ...

Hi from Abel Tasman, where we have been hiking the famous coastal trail, playing bocce, doing school work, and staying warm (it is pretty cold here as it is now early fall and below zero most nights!). We took a water taxi to Torotanui yesterday and hiked back to the lodge, which was fun. We had to cross over some beaches and a huge coastal tidal area that we can only cross two hours before or after low tide. There were shells and small crabs all over the sand. We ...

... by the pancake rocks and through greymouth allong the way. no body told us about the *******ing sand flies along the west coast and although they werent that bad at the pancake rocks, we did stop at a nice beach and try to go for a swim. the waves when we got to the water were much bigger than we'd thought they were form the car and there seemed to be a shelf just a few feet out underneath where the waves crashed in. so we decided it wasnt a good idea and ...

Got to Franz Joseph around 7pm after after rescuing a couple who had broken down on the way out of Haast, which isn't a town, it's a bend in the road with a coffee shop.Stopped at Fox Glacier to walk around Lake Mathis and take pictures of the reflection of the galcier in the water.....but the clouds were too low. By 9pm it was chucking it down and so we sat outside (under cover) and watched people running about in it hehehehe In the morning, we had to make ...

Oh my god, today we start the 1st day of a 3 day trek along the Abel Tasman trail. We are camping along the way and carrying all our stuff including the tent. My bag is so heavy, i have no idea how i am going to do this! Today is the worse day as we have to walk 20 Km's in 6 hours and it is all up and down hill, but the views are amazing.

... wade across an estuary to get to the lodge we were staying in that night. We could have walked round but we'd caught the tide at the point where the estuary was crossable. The water came up over everyone's knees and one of the group, a little lady called Shirley, had it coming up to the top of her thighs she was so short! At one point it was almost like I was judging where I should walk by whether I could still see the top of her head or not! I was going to ask the people ...

... streams, past scenic viewpoints with benches where you could sit and stare at miles of aquamarine ocean winking in the sun, past wading birds, past exotic flowers of eye-blinding colour. We passed slow strollers, fast power-walkers slurping energy drinks from tubes wrapped around their shoulders and emerging under their armpit sort of device! We passed old grannies gossiping in their Nike trainers and zip-up anoraks as they puffed and ambled up steep track, we passed groups of ...

... had caused loads of landslides which partially blocked the roads, up along the cliffs there were sections of road enttirely washed away and others where it had come so unstable that the council boys had reduced the road by over 2m to rebuild it structurally sound. Anyway we got to Abel Tasman National park at around 2.30pm but it was too late to hire kayaks ...