Advertisement
Published: March 1st 2006
Edit Blog Post
Getting ready for NY in the Marlborough Sounds
L-R round the table Me, Joanne, Caroline, Aileen, Sam, Helen After our night in Nelson it was back on the bus again - this time to Picton where we met up with some more of the girls, Joanne (another brit) and Delis (a kiwi), and got a boat over to Furneaux lodge in the Marlborough Sounds... home for the next 3 nights. We'd chosen to spend New Years here for a number of reasons... we wanted to be near the sea but away from the hussle of a big town or city (well, big by NZ standards), it's a beautiful spot, it was in the right direction back to Welly... oh and there was a live band playing for NYE!!
We had a tiny bit of blagging to do when we arrived at Furneaux lodge..... Joanne and Aileen were late additions to the trip and by the time they had tried to book it was full for New Years Eve :0( We'd decided on the 'turn up and hope they don't turn us away' approach rather than trying to sneak them in, and as it turned out we'd timed it perfectly - the manager had a friend just arrived who was looking to rent out the two spare berths on
his fishing boat for the night!!!! So whilst Joanne and Ails went off to their fishing boat the rest of us went off to the Croft. This is the back packers part of Furneaux - they rest of it is the more luxurious... and hence out of our price range... type of accommodation. I've stayed in a lot of backpackers during my stay in NZ... and I have to say this wouldn't rank as one of the better ones. In no way did we let it spoil our stay, in fact it became a running joke, but at $30 a night for a dorm bed I expected a bit more than having to pay $2 for a shower... which more often than not was cold... and having to wait till 4pm in the afternoon for someone to come and empty the bins... which had long since over flowed.
Anyway back to NYE.... the designated shoppers in Nelson had outdone themselves, we had a fab chickpea curry for dinner complemented with enough bubbles, vino and gin that we didn't get to the party till sunset..... After some 4 plus hours of dancing under the stars to everything from the Proclaimers
(Aileen, our Scottish lass, leading the way on that one) to Golden Horse (kiwi band) we collapsed into bed. New Years day was suitably chilled.... Megan and Delis ventured out for a little walk to find the place that Megan used to visit when she was a weee thing, but the rest of us settled down to the hard work of relaxing in the sun down by the waterfront... you have to remember that we had just walked 82km!! or was that 92?? or 102?? The actual number seemed to go up each time someone told the story ;0)
As it's the summer here at this time of year we got Jan 2nd off to!!! We miss out later in the year but as I won't be here then I wasn't complaining - it was an excellent excuse to spend another day relaxing in the sun. We waved bye bye to Helen and Joanne - they were off on another adventure in the North Island - and then I managed to pull my walking boots back on for a short hike along the Queen Charlotte track with Megan and Delis. I've walked all 3 days of the track before
and wasn't tooo keen to exacerbate my blisters by going far... but it was nice to get out and see some more stunning views. The night finsihed with another short walk, this time to see the pretty glow worms in the surrounding forest surrounding.... ahhhhhhh :0)
Alas the end of our Xmas and New Year adventure came all to quickly and it was time to return to Welly. Next time - beach volleyball, wine festivals, horse racing and farewells.....
Advertisement
Tot: 0.048s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 14; qc: 29; dbt: 0.0234s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb