Nelson Ranches - Reviews and Rates

Hello all from the final destination on our trip - the South Island Yes can you believe it; we have less than two weeks to go - crazy! Our first port of call - Nelson, the sunniest place in New Zealand. Getting here though was a mission. The ferry across was packed to the rafters and was the average size of Ipswich!! Heather had remembered to ta...

01/08/2008 Got up, had breakfast and made our way to Nelson to get the blog sorted and relax for the day before some serious walking. In the evening we treated ourselves to some fish and chips, first in over four months - not quite as good as back home but not bad!

We hopped on the Interislander 3 hr ferry to the South Island Wa-Hoo!!! I finally made it here! The ferry was huge and nice with incredible views as we coasted into shore. We drove 2 hrs straight to Nelson and booked our next days adventure. This was a travel day so we took it easy by heading to the bar and taking advantage of the backpacker dri...

Today I headed off early to catch a coach to the smallest New Zealand National Park, Abel Tasman (named after the dutch explorer who first circumnavigated New Zealand but failed to make it ashore thanks to Maori tribesmen). It was a couple of hours drive but soon I got dropped off at the Water Taxi where I was going to get a lift right into the ...

Friday was the 4 month anniversary of our leaving the UK and so far things have gone pretty smoothly, until last night. As you all know I've been staying at Nelson YHA for the last few weeks but last night I had to move out for the night because it was fully booked out by a school doing some performance or other in Nelson. Today's blog was suppo...

The Nelson region, we have been told, has more sunshine than anywhere else in New Zealand - all we can say is "nice weather for ducks"! Despite the continuous rain we did show perseverance and venture outside and got to sample a few organic beers and watch Hot Fuzz at the local cinema. We've done a lot of reading and watching films in New Zealand.

The ferry to the South Island took me by a pretty scenery, many little islands were to be passed and some dolphins joined the tour, jumping behind the boat every now and then. The ferry ends in the small town of Picton, which basically hasn't much to offer, but the port. I decided to rent a car while exploring the South Island, to give me even m...

After quite a rocky and stomach churning boat ride to the South Island (not helped by the night before), we all arrived in the South Island where we stayed in a town called Nelson. We stayed in a hostel/pub owned by a Scottish lady, which was surprisingly welcoming as Andy and myself actually had to act like adults for once and have a wine tasti...

I arrived back in Nelson and stayed for a couple of days with Pat and John. Their daughter Kirsty, her husband Musty and 4 month old baby daughter Pappatya were visiting from Turkey. Apparently Kirsty and I had met before when we were just babies ourselves. I spent a lovely couple of days catching up before heading down to Tam's for a few days. ...

Whoo Hoo, celebration time, I called the hostel in Queenstown where I thought I had left my camera case and memory card and they had it. I sent them a postage paid envelope and they are going to mail it to me at my house. I was so happy, all my pictures were not lost after all. Great news. Now the bad news is that I only have four more days unti...