Cedar Grove Motor Lodge Nelson

We caught bits and pieces of the news from the States and I'm so saddened by the 4 officers who were shot and so relieved that they caught the suspect. We are at Nelson Airport, checked in at the counter by a woman from Rochester NY who saw a National Geographic special 23yrs ago about NZ and decided to move here-she works for Air New Zealand now! We have about 2hrs before our flight to ...

... this is a great time to explain that in New Zealand there are regions and then cities; however, sometimes they are named the same. We arrived into the city of Nelson and it looked a lot like your typical American small city. Turns out we should have drove further north and arrived near the Abel Tasman National Park which is in the region of Nelson and not the city. Our luck was left ...

... Island sets out from, and were buffeted by gales all night - which was surprisingly exciting. In the morning we managed to get on a boat, though we did have a 5 hour wait and it was ROCKY. We arrived at about 9:30 pm and then found the nearest campsite to the ferry terminal and crashed out. So that pretty much finished our journey through the South Island.....so on to Wellington

Still missing you all and sending lots of love xxxxx

... DVD of the flight but none the less the experience was still the same and was such an adrenalin rush. Whilst Phil, Zoe and Laura were hand gliding, Daniel went for a walk up to the 'Centre of New Zealand' walkway and Sherri relaxed back at the hostel. As the hand gliders didn't return until quite late, Daniel decided to eat alone whilst Sherri held out for their return. We all then took a stroll into town for something to eat and a few drinks before showering and then bed.

... then we get to Barrytown.... the strangest place I have seen in NZ so far ... it is a very small village and the only pub there has been converted into a hostel as well. This is where we will be staying. A few locals come drink at the pub in the evening and laugh a us because it is fancy dress evening... in fact it is fancy dress evening every day there!!! every single day a new Stray bus comes in and dumps a load of tourists there for the night and ...

Punakaiki. Nu er vi taget vest på, hvor der efter guide bøgernes beskrivelser skulle regne hele tiden. Men her er vejret også fantastisk. Vi har tilbragt dagen med en kanotur på Punakaiki River, hvor vi kæmpede hårdt med lavvande i floden. (Bettina lærte lidt om navigation på vandet - men lur mig ...

We woke up in the ferry parking lot in Picton, in the South Island, happily to no one tapping on our window asking us to move. We weren't sure we were allowed to park there overnight but since we landed around 12.30 am we decided to chance it. Once on the road we made the 2 hour drive to Nelson, a somewhat small, artsy town on the coast, where we had planned on spending the rest of the day. This area as well ...

We left Abel Tasman and drove along the coast stopping at a few places such as the Truman Trail and Pancake rocks. It was quite damp in the air and very windy, but the coast line was still striking. Arriving in to Barrytown at about 4ish, we found the hostel was a bar with a few rooms out the back. A roast was served about 7 and the drinks started flowing. Now as Barrytown is not much more than ...

Drive through Buller Gorge We then made our long drive to the west coast. Following the buller river. Nothing really that interesting in this view, although the river views were pretty enough, in the land of dramatic scenery, Buller offers nothing much. The dreaded sandflies could also be found in this area. I did get bitten here. Stop at Murchison for petrol Over in this area, there are plenty of hick towns ...