I arrived in Nelson a bit early to join the walkers, having read the wrong line on the website showing when they were arriving in Picton. They were also running a bit behind schedule. Consequently I had almost two weeks to kill in the Nelson region while I waited. And it's not a bad place to wait.
I accidently arrived on St Patricks day and checked into the cheapest, closest backpackers. It turned out to be a great choice. When I arrived the whole place was crawling with drunken green people, at least half of whom seemed to be Irish. After a few deep breaths I joined the fun and spent the evening at a nearby Irish pub that had run out of guinness listening to Irish music with varied travellers from the hostel. One young Irish guy called Paul called out "Play something we know!" after every classic Irish tune, without fail. Funny.
After a day to recover I headed up to the top of Able Tasman National Park and made my leisurely way down the Coast Track backwards. It was a beautiful five days of walking, swimming and beautiful views. I'd rate the beaches around here much
higher than our bays up north. No seaweed, for a start. The campsites were great, too, although they did start getting a little bit busy the closer I got to civilization. I think the last night I stayed at Anchorage there were 100 other campers there. I had a fun night though, getting taken in by a kayak tour group and entertained by a couple of middle-aged kiwis from Pukekohe. They also fed me some curry which was nice since I'd been on minimal rations for the previous four days.
I spent a few days in Nelson after that, walking around the general area and up into the hills behind town trying to keep my daily kms up for the long walk ahead. I got a bit bored with town after a while and decided to head out to Nelson Lakes for a couple of days. It was spectaculary beautiful and I got in a long day walk up the side of Lake Rotoiti and on up the valley to Travers Swing bridge and back. Other than that I just hung out by the lake and tried not to get too pissed off with the sandflies. I also had
a dorm room to myself both nights which was a real treat.
Back in Nelson I had the weekend to pass in the wonderful company of Niamh and co. at Retreat where I drank too much beer and generally didn't prepare myself for a 400km walk. But they were fun times and well worth it. Although I think my Spaghetti Western costume for the Italian themed party went over most people's heads...
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