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Published: October 8th 2006
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THURSDAY - beauty and the beach!
From our stop in Nelson, we drove further south to Abel Tasman National Park where we found a hostel and payed $3 for our second shower in two weeks, it was brilliant to feel clean again!!
Abel Tasman is a much talked about park where one can spend 4 days trekking through the bush and find themselves on remote golden sand bays surrounded by green forest and a flurish of wildlife.
We had no intention of such a trek but a good walk was definately on the cards after our recent lack of excercise cramped in the van.
We walk for about 40mins through the bush before coming across our first secluded bay, Coquille bay. THe view from the path before we wlked down to the beach was beautiful in itself, but once on the beach it's beauty was amplified. The weather was certainly on our side with clear blue skies and a hot sun, some-what demoted from being hot by the chilly breeze. We lay on the beach and relaxed after our walk enjoying the feeling of sun beaming onto our now 'white as an englishman' faces once again. Our packed lunch
of... mmm cheese sandwiches and crisps was inhaled and then we went on our merry way to the next bay. 30mins later we were at a place called Appletree Bay, that was different from the last in shape and form but equally as gorgeous. We cracked open a Haast beer and sat once again to enjoy beach life and a bit of a nap.
The walk back was about an hour and a half and we all felt for the good afterwards. There was also an abundance of bird-life within the park, playing host to 80% of New Zealands bird population, from Kingfishers to Hawks... maybe I am an ornothologist after-all???!! (a bird-watcher?) well there is little else wildlife here to enjoy... it's pretty much all birds!
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before we went on our long walk we went into a little arts & sculpture place where there were some incredible wood carvings and a true hippy hang-out. Some of the work was amazing, and can take up to 3 weeks to complete.
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We drove back towards Picton where we planned to catch a ferry to the North Island, stopped somewhere that I can't remember at the moment.
FRIDAY - An Irish welcome and a few pints of Guiness.
Matt knew some people through a long link in his family tree who lived in Picton and owned a little irish bar called Seumuss's Nook. We pottered about the lovely and quaint harbour side town of Picton and treated ourselves to some fish and chips.
We booked our trip to the North Island at the ferry terminal.
We then had our tea aside the pub getting some very funny looked from people walking by as three grown men are cramped inside a little campervan, one of whom (me) is whisking frantically the eggs for their omlette.
At about 9:30pm we went inside Seumuss's Nook and enjoyed 3 pints of Guiness, which after our 2 weeks stint of not really drinking got us quite merry and we had a really good laugh!
SATURDAY - VANity gets pimped and across the water we go!
The day was mainly spent waiting around to catch our 6pm ferry to the North Island, but whilst waiting around in Picton we thought it was about time we decorated our bring, same as everyone else's campervan, so with the help of
a lot of coloured electrical tape bought from a man in a little shop who couldn't believe why we kept goin back for more tape. As you can see from the pictures it now looks absolutely ridiculous but different and crazy from the other boring vans. We now ride in a; from the back - 'CH'EZY 'b'entals campervan with a quote fromt he latest Will Ferrell film "Shake 'n' Bake!" and from the front - 'SL'EZY 'b'entals campervan. The artwork is copyright so please don;t ry to copy. The ride through Picton once our work was complete recieved many a laugh and comical look... "that's how we roll!!"
We drove up the mountain side around the Marlborough sounds, which produceed some more incredible views and scenary, very nice indeed.
Then we went o board the ferry to find we had to wait 2 hours as it was running late but, we eventually boarded and headed North.
Arriving in Wellington with no idea where to go we drove for a little while to a little village and found a car park at 11:30pm where we parked up and went to bed.
SUNDAY - car on it's
side and writing then writing!
I woke up to find a police car parked next to the van, but not becuase of us thankfully , but becuase of a car that was on it's side in the middle of the road. How it got there without making a loud noise I have no idea? All was sorted out though.
3 hours later I'm still sat here writing this, my eyes hurt so I'm out of here!
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Stacey doo
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What G'wan
Hey. My sincerest apologies for not being in touch for a mammoth length of time. Since i've moved down to brighton things don't seem to have stopped but things are all good here, as I'm sure they are with you too. Your seeing parts of NZ that i never got the chance too so it often pains me to read these blogs! Anyway, I'm thinking about you boys. Can't believe coogee was coming on for a year ago. "I DON'T WANT NOBODY...I DONT WANT NOBODY BABY....BUT YOUUUUUUUUUUUU" xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx