Marlborough Region

We crossed the Cook Strait on a lovely big Interislander ferry known as the Kaitaki, and there couldn’t have been a nicer day for it. We had gorgeous sunshine and a bit of a breeze to keep us cool, so we sat out on the upper deck watching the wondrous sights that go hand in hand with this crossing. The scenery was totally breathtaking, and we were glad we hadn’t suffered the same fate as many people we have met along the way, who had the misfortune of crossing in the bad weather and not seeing any sights at all! The highlight of the sailing being the final stretch through Queen Charlotte Sound on the approach toward Picton.

Picton is a lovely little town with a lovely relaxed atmosphere, so small we easily walked from the ferry terminal to our hostel in the middle of town in a mere 5 minutes! We had only 1 night in Picton, as most people seem to, travelling through it to or from the ferry, but we really enjoyed ourselves and found the people quite friendly.

The next stop was a bus on Christmas Eve to Nelson. A strange feeling it was too, driving along in the lovely weather viewing lovely scenery instead of running around trying to buy last minute presents or stock up on more food or drink.

We did manage a bit of rushing around though; we had to do shopping for our Christmas dinner. Which turned out gorgeous thanks to Lynsey. Had it been left to me I think we would have been eating pasta with a bit of chocolate for dessert! As it turned out we had a lovely roasted stuffed chicken with extra stuffing, gravy, mash spuds, and a load of vegetables. As close as we could get to a traditional dinner with our hostel kitchen and limited preparation time. Waking up on Christmas morning in a hostel is an unusual feeling. With no tree to run down to and no family to wake up, we did miss home. But as the day panned out it felt so unlike Christmas that it soon felt a bit like any other day on our travels so far. After we cooked some rashers to set ourselves up for the day we walked to the Nelson Catholic Church, wouldn’t be Christmas without going to mass.

After our gorgeous dinner we decided to take a stroll to the geographical centre of New Zealand. According to the free map we had acquired from reception, it was a simple case of walking down the end of the adjoining street. What it didn’t tell us however that it was a half our hike up quite a large hill! Be warned, hiking up a hill after Christmas dinner is NOT advisable! We did make it however and the views over Nelson and its harbour, Port Nelson, were well worth it. Unfortunately, it started to rain shortly after we reached the peak and as the night was also closing in we retreated back to the hostel after a short rest.

After our sojourn in Nelson we took ourselves off towards Abel Tasman National Park in our newly rented Nissan Pulsar. We used Motueka as our base and headed off to explore the area. He beaches were outstanding! Kaiteriteri beach was were we went for a swim and it was the nicest beach we’d seen since we left Fiji. It had been listed in the top 10 beaches in the world by The Guardian in London and was easy to see why. The sand was golden and the water beautifully blue.

We only rested our heads for the one night in Motueka before we set off the next day to explore the West Coast of the South Island…..

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