Grand Mercure Nelson Monaco Apartments

... raspberry fruit. Good length and weight for a rosé. <br><br>2007 Moutere Pinot Noir &#8211; Clear and Bright, medium intensity. Top Pinot nose with Garrigue and rich fruit. Smooth, rich, slightly peppery palette with great fruit. Long with a clean finish. Still very young.<br><br>Glovers Vineyard &#8211; I was tipped off to go to Glovers vineyard by someone in Marlborough as this was a very individual place with a somewhat ...

... hut. The hut was much nicer than we expected, but it only had one small fireplace to heat the entire hut. And it was COLD! The hut can hold up to 30 people, with its bunk beds attached to the wall, seven people long! Only about 15 people ended up staying the night at the hut and we met some pretty interesting people.. there was a 70 year old lady who had been hiking all the Great Walks in New Zealand ...

... the death of Garvo when he polished off the Toad in the Hole for dinner that along with a belly full of beer! A windy sunny day we headed over to Farewell Spit enjoying a rather bumpy journey up and over the Abel Tasmin National Park, which left us both suffering. On our explore of the spit we were lucky to not be blown away with the gusts of winds and we were both keen to head to the cafe for afternoon delights. Next ...

... a lactose intolerance?!? Next morning we were up for our longest walk, about 28k, and I was worried we wouldn't keep up. Stan's knees had been bothering him by the end of the day before and I just didn't want to be the party pooper, but we need not have bothered. Even when we finished at about 4.30pm I felt as if I could have kept going for another couple of hours and Stan was just fine. I can't describe just how beautiful the place we were staying was - on the ...

... for most of it... ) we get to the South Island. A long drive through Picton, the Malborough vineyards and Nelson gets us to Marahau, in the Abel Tasman National Park. This Park is stunning: beautiful golden sandy beaches, dense forest and hills... I decide to stay 3 days to chill and get walking and sea kayaking. My first day is very gentle: long lay in, breakfast in he sun and gentle 3h walk with Sanne on the coast track to reach Apple tree bay... beautiful!!!... The next ...

... schoen, hab aber dadurch wieder 1,5 Std verloren. Der Tag war total schoen, einen Teil bin ich noch mit einer Schweizerin geloffen, die dann mit dem Segelboot weiter ist, die mir etwas ueber ihre Reise in Sued-Ost Asien erzaehlt hat. (sie kam aus Bern). Um 14 uhr hab ich dann noch einen kleinen stopp eingelegt um in einer Bucht zu baden. Um 16: 45 waer ich abgeholt worden und bis dahin waren es noch 2 Std zu laufen. Kann sich ja jetzt jeder ...

So. This is what we call a good plan for Christmas. Spend the eve and Christmas day kayaking, camping and hiking at one of the most impressive and secluded national reserves of the southern island of New Zealand, the Abel Tasman National Park. Having arrived in the area late the previous night after spending a few hours in artistic Wellington and taking the ferry to the southern island, we woke up early in the morning to get our kayaks ...

... introduced' trees and looks pretty much the way it would have one 1000 years ago. We saw lots of examples of Rimu trees which had been comandeered by various kinds of Northern Rata which drop their seed in a little fork in the Rimu (or whichever the host tree is) and then drop their roots down the outside of the Rimu to the ground where they then take hold and get bigger and bigger. Some types of Rata grow up the tree to rather than down and then add in the host of other ...

... and the news was reporting that it was snowing in Queenstown and Dunedin, but the good news was that the forecast for Nelson and the Abel Tasman National park - the setting for my next 3 day tramp - was for 4 lovely warm dry days. Weyhey, who knows I might actually get to unzip the bottom of my walking trousers and bear my legs! Best get some fake tan on them first mind! The journey back round to Nelson was very pleasant. This new bus ...

... forest and although Thumper proposed we stayed there for lunch, I urger him to go on to Nelson as I wanted to have some time to see the town. As majority rules on Thumpers bus, and noone objected, we had 45 minutes in the town which seemed really cool. I walked straight to the art deco cathedral, which was very cool and unusual and had great views from its hill. For sightseeing, 45 minutes was sufficient in Nelson, and we picked up three more (2 ...