Palazzo Motor Lodge Nelson

... was very pretty. We drove through a bit of the Marlborough wine region and saw the vineyards before we reached Nelson. We didn't know where to stay so I took our our bible (aka Lonely Planet) and liked the sound of the first hostel so we drove over to it and got a 4 bed dorm all to ourselves. Niamh and myself were in love with the place! It was a lovely sunny day and there was a lovely balcony outside our room and the room itself had lovely wooden ...

... suddenly the door opened! Fear and panic flooded through me but as we were doing a tandem skydive - there wasn’t much of a chance to escape - before I knew it I was sitting with my legs dangling out of a plane at 12000 feet and then I was freefalling at 12000 feet - literally breath taking! I remember bits and pieces of the fall, I remember us being upside down and the instructor showing me the plane that we had just jumped out of, and I remember us spinning round and ...

... 12 km walk. We first got a boat to a place called Anchorage, then walked back down to the bus stop. It was such a beautiful place with deserted beaches and forest walks. It got really warm as well as we hiked up the mountains! <br><br>On our last night, the day before my birthday, 9 of us went out for a pre-birthday curry. It was really cheap and amazing, we finished the night off at Shark pool bar with a few pints!

... on the bus who were traveling to the North Island, we dropped them in Picton so they could catch the ferry across. We decided not to stay in Picton as it is only a quaint little town settled at the head of Queen Charlotte Sound with not a lot to do, instead we were staying on the bus to Nelson. Departing Picton we headed out via the scenic Marlborough Valley full of vineyards and world famous for its delicious Sauvignon Blanc variety of wines. We then passed ...

We have spent over a week in Nelson so far and are really enjoying it. It is supposed to the be Sun capital of New Zealand so the weather has been pretty nice for us. Rained a few days but other then that we have spent our fair share of time around the pool and at the beach. The beaches here are like Parksville beach.... they go on for miles. We bought a frisbee a few weeks ago and its the best $15 we ...

... which is pleasant and modern, but nowhere near as atmospheric as the house in which we stayed last night, for an aperitif, before going downtown for dinner. We watched what we thought was blossom blowing off the trees, before realising that it was in fact ash from the forest fire.  Dave drove us back from town and we found out the hard way that there is a convention in NZ that if two cars are ...

... all the main sights and got to see how weary people looked when they came back from their walks. Our boat driver was a cheery man (not) and at one beach got very annoyed that some people were not on time for the taxi - only wanted to wait for them for about 2 minutes and we evetually left them there (hope they didn't have to walk the whole track back). The next day ...

... while I was cooking my dinner I got talking to the strange lady from earlier that day, the one who had directed me to the centre of New Zealand. She told me that she'd gone to the centre of New Zealand that afternoon ... And took care to tell me that it was 30 minutes from bottom to top rather then 30 mins from the hostel to the top ... I'm obviously quite unmemorable which probabaly would have meant that it possibly would have been safe to divulge my room number after all!

... minute i arrived and settled into my cosy double room. the first night she kindly invited me over to her apartment in the hostel and we settled in with a couple of bottles of wine, some cheese and crackers and some girly DVDs. it was some much-needed time-out and it was great to be in a house with some girl company and be able to relax and chat. no surprise the next day the pass was closed again. but in return for a couple of hours helping out with ...

... for sea sickness and Sarah had more ginger than Chris Evans in a Chinese restaurant that day which did actually help as she was not sick once (unlike the gobby little kid next to us who soon shut up once we got out to sea.....brilliant!). After about half an hour at sea we spotted out first sperm whale and I have to say it is a pretty amazing experience. It stayed on the surface for a few minutes before doing the well documented 'tale sticking out the water' as it ...