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Published: February 20th 2008
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Hi Everyone,
We're writing this from Christchurch, 'The Garden City', like England, but without the ASBO'S. We got here yesterday so will let you know more in the next installment.
We spent most of the last week in Nelson: NZ's sunniest place and a great base to explore some, but not much, of the northern part of the South Island. We stayed with Jaime's mum's friend Judi who kindly also gave us the use of her car for the week.
On our first full day we went to the local vistor centre and booked a few things to do during our stay and followed this by having a coffee on the steps of the Cathederal that overlooks the town. We also went to a local jeweller that designed and made 'The Ring' for the "Lord of the Rings" films. There was a prototype on display. Kind of looked like a big gold ring.
The next day we made for the Abel Tasman National Park where a water taxi took us to a small bay called Anchorage, a three to four hour walk back to where we'd left the car. The water was a beautiful turqoise colour and
Tepuketa Bay
A lovely hour and a half enjoying the sun and sea the morning was warm without being too hot. Firstly we took a 15 minute walk to Tapuketa Bay, voted by Guardian readers as one of the top 5 beaches in the world. Hey, I think even Daily Mail readers would have liked it. We spent a good 90minutes lying on the beach and attempting to swim in the cold water. See the pictures for a look at the beach.
After the beach we started the walk back to base along a fantastic coastal path, going in and out of lush wooded areas of shade with views of the ocean almost all of the way back. It was a brilliant day and important for the exercise as our constant eating out is putting us a bit on the lardy side.
After the walk we had to rush back to Nelson as we'd got tickets to an open air concert featuring one of NZ's top bands, Salmonella Dub (not sure I've heard a more rubbish band name since the Afghan Wigs), playing with the New Zealand Symphony orchestra. The mix of music styles was excellent and there was a great atmosphere but we only saw about an hour of music;
apparently over here they start playing shortly after the 'Doors Open' time, hence we were at the fish and chip shop while much of the action was going on. Yes, I am aware I just spoke about us being lardy, and that we followed our long walk with a trip to the chippy.
For the next few days we slowed the pace and hung out in the town a bit more, visiting an exhibition on machines designed by Da Vinci, eating more nice food at some of the excellent cafes and restaurants and doing more sorting for the rest of the trip. We also saw a good chick-flick at the cinema: 27 dresses.
One of the main reasons for staying so long in Nelson was that Jaime's mum had bought us tickets to an even last Saturday called Opera in the Park, which featured a rare NZ performance by Kiri Te Kanawa, their most famous opera singer. She was joined by a few friends including one guy who is booked to play La Scala in Milan, so he was bound to be pretty good. It was a fantastic evening even for non opera fans like ourselves. The singing
was beautiful, mixing classic opera with more contemporay songs from musicals. The Nessun Dorma made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. At the end there was a brilliant fireworks display, and to top it off, the food was pretty good as well (2 quid for a gormet pie! New Zealanders really don't know how to rip you off at music events: it was nearly 7 quid for slop and chips at the Arctic Monkeys).
After a brilliant night it was up early the next day to move on to Kaikoura, home of the whale watching industry in NZ. Kaikoura is a beautiful town where you can be sitting in bright sunshine but see snow capped mountains a few miles away.
We were booked on a ship for the Monday morning. The whale watching cruises always have sea sickness warnings and thanklfully ours were mild, but the five mile journey out was rocky to say the least. It was all worthwhile when we stopped a few meters from a large sperm whale just floating near the surface, preparing to dive. After a few minutes the dive happened and everyone had there cameras ready for the
Trying to Smile...
...while feeling like we could be sea sick any moment famous photo of the tail fin just before it enters the water. All this took place in complete silence apart from the running commentry of a Texan woman who had to vocalise everything she thought ('Oh my god! is that a whale? Where's the camera? It's brown! etc etc).
A mere five minutes later we were near another sperm whale that had just surfaced. We watched for about 10 minutes as it swam slowly along before diving. It was a beautiful sight and an experience we're so glad we put in our schedule. After the second whale we moved closer to shore and were lucky to see a pod of 500-600 Dusky Dolphins playing around in the water. we did our best to get some photos of them jumping and spinning in the air but they were so fast that it proved a tough task. After this it was back to shore, having avoided the dreaded sea sick. Three people on our boat didn't, though this is apparently quite a low score.
In the evening we had some local seafood tapas, with a beer tree which gives 6 or seven small glassed of different beers from the same
brewer. Lovely.
We left Kaikoura on Tuesday, but not before a walk along the clifftops near the town and a visit to the local seal colony. We got some good snaps of us standing a few feet from the seals as they lazed on the rocks.
Overall a brilliant week, one of the best, if not THE best of the travels.
Best Wishes,
Martin and Jaime
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Jaime
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MILD?????!!!!
Just a correction to Martin's entry, it was a STRONG sea-sickness warning! The waves were up to 2 meters in height and it was like being on a rollercoaster!!!