A trip to the centre of New Zealand and a bay leaf and white choc ice cream

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After a lovely nights sleep I go out for a run this morning, along the seafront, back to Thunanui beach. I sit on the beach for a while and enjoy watching the early morning haze over the sea, with the mountains peaking above the haze in the background.

I have a nice chilled day for once, making the most of wearing normal clothes and not walking attire. After doing some laundry and sorting my kayaking trip in Abel Tasman for a few days time, I enjoy fully exploring Nelson in the sunshine. The most notable points include the bead museum, filled with thousands of jars of beads - I was tempted to try and make something in there, but my creativity failed me, and my need for the toilet won, so I headed out to find a toilet instead. I also enjoyed walking through the Queens Gardens, and climbing the hill to the ‘centre of New Zealand’ – the so called centre of the country for 360 degree views over the city and beyond. After all the walking in the sunshine my final highlight was having an ice cream from the famous ice cream parlour ‘penguino’ – although the owner insisted I try nearly every flavour, including chocolate chili with blackcurrant, I settled of bay leaf and white chocolate, which was fantastic!

I have a lovely chilled evening in the hostel, chatting away to lots of people, including Dave, who, over the hostels chocolate pudding (they give everyone staying a free portion of hot chocolate pudding, to encourage everyone to congregate in the dining room and talk), decides to come on the hiking trip which Ana invited me on yesterday. A friend of Dick’s (the man whose house I stayed in in Wanaka) planned a 3 day hiking trip in the Nelson Lakes with Ana and whoever else wanted to come, which is how Dave and I ended up going, but it meant I had no idea what the walk was going to entail – it’s going to be an exciting trip!

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