Nelson

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After dropping off practically half the coach at the ferry terminal to the north island, which we would be taking in a few weeks, we got a new bus load of people and changed drivers and headed to Nelson, stopping off for some wine and liqueur tasting on the way.

The driver had told us about some thermal springs that we were going to take a dip into, which got us all excited. Sadly it turned out to be a glacier fed gorge. We all dived in nontheless and it was bloody freezing. So cold in fact that I found it hard to breathe when I first surfaced. Apparently there's an even colder one in the north island (2 degrees C). I can't wait.

We met up with another new dude from the bus called Andy, and checked into the Prince Albert where we had a beer tasting session followed by a roast beef dinner, which was bloody awesome. Our driver told us that Nelson was a good place to go out. He was wrong. We ended up in a pool bar that served quite cheap drinks but the locals were starting to freak us out a bit, plus this weirdo from Auckland wouldn't leave us alone, claiming that he had run away from home about a week ago in just his boxer shorts, a likely story.

Another early night followed as we had booked on a trip to the Abel Tasman National Park early the next day. The trip involved a water taxi along the coast, visiting a seal colony (another one), split apple rocks, and some rare blue penguins. Split apple rocks is basically a big boulder that's split down the middle. Legend has is that Maori gods of the sea and land couldn't decide who the rocks belonged to so they got split. This is because of the tide, at high tide it's surrounded by water, and at low tide you can walk up to it from the beach. This is all down to the fact that this region experiences a tidal difference of over 4 metres.

We were then dropped off part way along the coast and took a 2 1/2 hour walk back down before getting picked up again by the water taxi. The walk was really tough, involving a section uphill that never seemed to end. It was worth it though as at the top we caught glimpses of spectacular views over the coast. Apparently in the Summer months (November - December) you can see whales such as Orca (Killer) and Sperm whales, but we didn't see much marine life sadly. We decided to take a slight extension to our walk as we were a bit early for the taxi pick up and ended up walking through what can only be described as a river. Being clever, I decided that I could walk through it with my waterproof shoes on, it was much deeper than it looked and I spent the rest of the day with wet feet. That aside, the walk was brilliant, and much cheaper that the kayaking option. When we got back to the office, we met up with the kayakers and found out that they had seen bugger all, i.e. no seals or penguins, which made me feel a whole lot better.

That night we had a poker session and another early night and got on the Kiwi bus the next morning bound for Westport.

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