Goodbye South island

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Its been only 5 mins since we last sent you an entry but we thought we'd take the opportunity to wrap up the South Island ...

We finished up in Nelson (nice little art gallery) before heading down
the coast to some of the remote parts of Marlboro Sound - Okiwi Bay, Duncan Bay, Penzance etc. All really beautiful and slow moving pace of life. Water was so clear but still a littleto chilly to have a dip - Matt desperately wants to ....

From there we ventured to Havelock, the world capital for green lipped
mussels!!! Oh yes i hear you say, a very prestiguos place indeed. We
sampled some at Mussel Boys were the waiters are all skantlky clad young men ... only kidding! We stuffed ourselves to the gills and Philpa almost burst!

Continued along the Queen Charlotte Drive to Picton (lots of bends)
which is
right next to the QC Sound. All amazing views etc. Since we have been
in
Picton the weather has been variable to say the least. On Monday we got
up
and it was sunny so we headed for a nice remote spot on the east coast.
As
we started the journey back the wind got really strong and as we entered

Picton is started to snow!!! But by the end of the day it was sunny and

warm again. Truely bizarre! Picton's a cool little town. We've down
some
nice short walks, played some mini golf which Philpa won, and plenty of
reading cos of the weather! (Yes its the non stop excitement capital!)
And
guess what, today, as we are about to leave its sunny as anything and
not a
cloud in the sky. Hopefully, withg every body part crossed, the
crossing to
the North Island will go without a hitch. (although now he's mentioned
it
it'll be horrid as everytime he's said how good the weather is and how
lucky
we've been the next day/later its chucked it down etc etc.p)

We didnt manage to get out on a boat whiolst here - rather
disappointing.
When we did try we were told it wasnt the weather for it so ..... Neh
mind,
we;ve seen some sounds so ...

Next stop Wellington - nations capital for those of you like us who
thought
it was Auckland. Probably spend a few days there lapping up the culture
etc
before getting rugged again, climbing some mountains and swimming in the

rapids!!! Alternatively we might just sit back and have a hot chocolate
...
our new favourite past time! Oh, and everything in NZ is "good as gold"
- everybody says it. True.

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