top of South Island

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I've finally got round to adding photo's to the other entries!

We completed the Queen Charlotte Track in 3 days, during which we had the loveliest weather we've had in NZ. The walk was pretty tiring, but the views were absolutely spectacular! Having finished it we were contemplating not doing any more walks due to blisters, but now that they've healed we want to do a walk in the Abel Tasmin National Park, except now the weather has gone down hill and I hurt my knee on the last walk (where was my Inca stick when I needed it?!). So the new plan is to go sea kayaking around the area instead - lets just hope the rain stays off for a bit!

We travelled down to Blenheim after our walk (the heart of the Malbourgh wine region) and went on a wine tasting tour. It had none of the sniffing, sipping and spitting nonsense, it was simply all about trying all the wine's available! we made it round about 7 wineries (also trying schnapps along the way) and concluded that we like Sauvignon Blanc and Reislings best, but the year and the winery its from make such a difference to taste it's going to be potluck whichever bottle you buy! This was about our 3rd tasting of NZ wines...the 1st was in Hawkes Bay at a winery (one of the best, but yet we didn't like it - we're simple people!) and the 2nd was on xmas eve when friends of the family we were staying with turned up (he owns a winery) with loads of bottles of wine for us to try! this mixed with home brew made a good xmas eve!

We're now currently in Nelson which is a pretty town. We vistited a musuem yesterday which contained 'wearable art' and collectable cars. some of the things were very bizarre, like artists had designed clothes simply out of paper or to look like the moon - very hard to explain and unfortunately you weren't allowed to take photo's in the place, so have no photos! At the moment we're camping out in a carpark (very classy!) as it's free, and we have got bored of paying to camp places...lots of other campervans use it too, but you feel a bit out of place when cooking dinner in the rain, under an umbrella, while the local basketball training finishes in the building beside the carpark and you get very funny looks!).

After the sea kayaking I'm not sure where we're going to head to...over to the West coast and towards the glaciers I think!

xxx

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