Blogs from Nelson Region, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 8

I have actually been on a couple of boats in the past couple of days, which was awesome. Yesterday was probably the best day of my trip so far. I went on a guided kayak tour of Abel Tasman national park. We spend the morning paddling through beautiful scenery and very close to several swimming seals. In the afternoon I was able to hike down the coastal track to Bark Bay, which had a great beach for swimming. The park was so peaceful and our guide was so knowledgeable and helpful, which made for a great day. Today was also a lot of fun. I drove out to the Buller Gorge for a jet boating ride. Jet boating is basically a more extreme version of powerboating, with more spins, rapids and fast speeds. In order to ... read more

So off to the South Island today. Everyone keeps telling us that this is the beautiful one of the two but I am finding it hard to believe that it can trump what we have already seen. We are taking the ferry between the two islands as the journey is supposed to be spectacular as it travels through the Marlborough sound. We had a bit of a worry earlier in the trip when Ian got an email saying that the propellor had fallen off one of the ferries and journeys were being rearranged! Luckily for us ours was just delayed an hour. Lots of people at the ferry port that we saw on the train (in fact we also saw some in the botanical gardens and the museum so we are obviously on the tourist route!). ... read more

Since leaving the USA in early October 2012 and returning to New Zealand, the "water flowing under my bridge" seems to have been in flood. What?, you say. You know that saying "It's all water under the bridge". Well it feels to me as if there has been a flood going on under my bridge (lots of water). My last blog was tribute to the women in my life and I'm pleased I wrote it. As usual, I get some mixed reactions but I reckon that if everybody agreed with everyone else, that would be boring. The blog before that was from Mt Gambier in South Australia. Well since then lots has happenned which has placed me back in New Zealand living with my Mum & Dad regrouping. This works for all 3 of us. Both ... read more

Dear all, Since I last wrote we have left Pohara Beach and driven back over the crazy mountain! I call it a huge mountain but its known as a hill here! Anyway the drive was fine and we headed to Nelson for our 2 nights in a motel. The motel was walkable from the city centre which was much easier than staying on a campground and driving in each day. Not that Nelson is huge but parking a campervan isn't always easy. So we checked into our motel which was really lovely. We walked into town and wandered around shops, had lunch in a cafe and I even managed to walk past Starbucks without going in! We found an old church which was converted into a bar and much to the delight of Ash it sold ... read more

Onze missie op het zuidereiland: werk vinden en het liefst zo snel mogelijk! Nelson was onze beste optie, door de vele boomgaarden die daar omheen liggen. Op naar Nelson dus via de Queen Charlotte Drive. De eerste dag reden we 50 km door de prachtige Marlborough Sounds naar onze camping voor de nacht. Daar bleek het vol te zitten met medefietsers. Zoveel hadden we er nog niet eerder bij elkaar gezien! Er waren fietsers die alleen op weg waren, maar ook een Duits gezin met een kindje achterop. Helden! Het tweede deel van de rit naar Nelson was iets minder interessant. Dat ging enkel over de snelweg. Wel een steeds duidelijker gevoel dat we de hele warme zomer achter ons hadden gelaten op het noordereiland. Vanaf het moment dat we in Nieuw-Zeeland aankwamen, was iedereen die ... read more