South Island New Zealand

Trip Start Nov 08, 2004
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Trip End May 08, 2005


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Flag of New Zealand  ,
Saturday, December 4, 2004

Our guide book says that Nelson New Zealand is a microcosm of the best of the South Island, with golden beaches, snow-capped mountains and emerald-green bush walks. It also says that NZ is a land of knowing smiles and kaleidoscopic colour, so we took this with a pinch of salt, but hoped it would be the case as we decided at the last minute to limit our South Island experience to three days as the weather further south was unseasonably cold and we'd packed little more than beach clothes (not really ideal to climb a glacier!)
The main landmark in Nelson is the Abel Tasman National Park, the smallest and most visited in NZ (got to love those well informed tour guides), and it's breathtaking. Kayaks go from golden beach to secluded inlet, but Zak and I opted for the less strenuous water taxi option. We also decided to have our lunch on a dramatic sand bank, but didn't count on the small matter of the tide, meaning that we had to scoff our snapper pate with our new seagull friends at a less leisurely pace than we had hoped before rolling up our trousers to wade back to the beach. We also surprised ourselves by completing a three hour 'tramp' (what NZers call hiking) and amused ourselves throughout by repeating the word 'tramping' which for some reason we found hilarious..the walk itself was fabulous, and took in an Indiana Jones style bridge over a vertigo-inducing gorge with more of those kayakers below and panoramic views of sand spits, islets and verdant bush.
So, no Queenstown, the adrenaline capital of NZ, with tourists hurling and catapulting themselves over anything they can speed or climb up. We're heading for sunny Melbourne instead (then Tasmania, another 'microcosm' of NZ South Island, but in warmer Oz, apparently).
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