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Published: March 19th 2009
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The main man...Abel Tasman
Although technically, do think Captain Cook was the main man. That guy got everywhere! 23/2/09 = Tahunanui beach & A Camera Cure
Woke up nice and leisurely at 7:45 after a brilliant nights sleep. Rolled around for a while, then got up and had breakfast. Should have been going to Abel Tasman today, but already too late for that and not at all bothered; sleep was more important. Got ready without rushing and entirely enjoying feeling of being well again…hooray! Didn’t know much about Nelson, but since was such a beautiful day outside, hostel man recommended a visit to Tahunanui Beach. Good idea. Booked and sorted water taxi for trip to Abel Tasman tomorrow at 8:30am (bit of a rip off at $64)and then did 45min walk through town and towards beach. Nice town with lots of nice little shops. Managed to avoid going in shops and spending money, but didn’t make it passed he glass jewelry stall without stopping. Had a gander and ended up buying a glass ring, a red snake I’ve called Henry. V.cute. Carried on then with no more shop/stall visits and walked out of town until got to main road running along sea and towards beach. Nice view for most of walk, although seemed to last forever and
glad to get there when we did. Beach = nice, but was dark and pebbly. Not a patch on beaches seen in Oz, but then NZ is not about beaches…as demonstrated by towering mountains that dominate background everywhere you go!
Didn’t fancy laying down because were too hungry after walk anyway, so went in search of a café. Unbelievably, passed the tinniest library ever seen whilst searching for cafes and it actually had free internet; brilliant! Booked on the next available time slot, which left just enough time to find a café and eat. Loads of food places were closed for some reason, but managed to find a good coffee shop selling tasty looking paninis. I was feeling particularly greedy and on re-feed from yesterday, so got big chicken panini, expensive smoothie and even ran to chip shop next door and ordered chips. Was all ready just at right time and when lady delivered sandwiches, she had same look of surprise at amount of food we had on table. Managed to eat most of it, just a few chips spare, but bellies v.full! No matter how many times I emphasise point “a lot of vinegar please…I mean really a
lot”, they still don’t get it right! Really would be a lot easier if they just let me put vinegar on myself! Anyway, ate it all just the same then headed over to internet. Only had 30mins, but managed to do few bits, then headed to beach = whole reason here after all.
Not such a nice beach to lay on because it was pebbly, but found a space and plonked anyway. Laid for an hour, then sun went away (brilliant kids explanation of light and day there) so walked back to hostel. Was a nice walk back and somehow felt quicker. Nice reward at end when found a much bigger library also with free internet, booked another hour from 5 until 6 and looked round town in meantime. Really needed to buy some new flip-flops for walk tomorrow. Mine now worn so thin that could pierce them with fingernails if nipped them and was impossible to walk across any kind of stoned surface without being in absolute agony…basically walking barefoot! Tried a few shoe shops, but all expensive and proper shoes. Eventually plucked up courage and just asked where could get hold of some ‘flip-flops’. She took one
Clear, pretty beach
Can still see mountains in the background if you look hard enough! look at me and knew what I meant. You can get some ‘cheap flip flops’ in the shop across the street. Ha! Didn’t take offense…was exactly the answer I was looking for. Went across and sure enough, found some cheap and decent(ish) flip flops and bought them. Then went back to internet and spent an hour catching up on some more of blogs. Camera still not working though = big problem now. Decided that would spend another hour in a computer shop trying to get it to work; hopefully some computer guy would take pity on me and help me out. Walking out of library when ran into Dave and Bobby again. Chatted for a while, but didn’t arrange anything for evening; knew we would be in bed early for 6am get up tomorrow. Wondered off then and into next internet shop. Tried to sort camera on own for 10mins, but no good, so eventually gave in and asked internet man if he could help. As soon as I explained problem, he recognised it instantly as a virus and said he could wipe it off card with no problem and all photos would be fine. Brilliant. Handed it over hopefully
and Deb asked him to look at hers too. 15mins later, he skipped back over and camera card cured. Virus that picked up in Thailand 4months ago, that had caused 4months of problems, now gone off card and everything worked fine. Hooray! Checked it worked and it did…straight away…double hooray! He even showed me that card had a neat little button to lock it and protect it from viruses when plugged into computer…triple hooray! Wish he was good looking…would have kissed him there and then! Spent next 2 hours copying all photos to CD just in case, then came out of internet shop to dark, cold night. Debs’ card still a little dodgy, so he still working on hers. Bless him; he didn’t even charge us for all work.
Got back to hostel and drove straight to supermarket. Got pasta for dinner, lunch for day out tomorrow and ingredients for pancake day tomorrow…yeh…love pancake day! Ate basic pasta dinner, then was 10pm and ready for bed. Everyone chatting in room, so joined in for a while, then eventually went off to sleep just before midnight.
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Phillip
non-member comment
wow
If the fellow who helped you had a beard it was probably me, glad I could help you with your cards :p Found your blog while looking up what travellers were saying about the nelson libraries free internet.