Nelson -

This past weekend was the long weekend for the trip. Classes were over for the students just before lunch on Thursday, and they didn't have to be back until class time Monday morning. We rented a car in preparation for a road trip to the top of the South Island. This is the area of the fabled Abel Tasman park and Tasman bay and Farewell Spit. It is a favorite vacation spot for Kiwis, and is repeatedly voted as the best place to go in New Zealand. We were there before (2 trips ago) but I was unable to enjoy it as much as I should have because that was when I was coming down with the chicken pox. We were sea-kayaking in one of the most beautiful places on earth, but I was near hallucinating from my fever and was nauseous to boot. It put a damper on both mine and Susan's experience, and we sort of vowed that we would definitely be coming back if we got a chance.

So this was our chance, the Griffiths' had no plans - they were going to be staying in the Christchurch area and catering to activities for Brian and Claire. We left Thursday afternoon and headed towards Nelson. As we have found with all travels in New Zealand, getting there is half the fun because of the awesome scenery. Aidan pretty much kicked back and enjoyed the drive when he wasn't taking a snooze. Much of the five hour drive to Nelson is along the "Coast Road" with stunning vistas of the alternating beaches and rugged, rocky coastline. We made the compulsory stop at the giant crayfish (looks and tastes just like our lobster but without claws), then headed inland. The balance of the journey is through hill country, heavily forested mountains and sounds (sorry we were lax and took no pictures of the sounds - that's a body of water, I know it reads strangely - "pictures of sounds"). We also passed through the Marlborough region, which is NZ's wine country. It is quite picturesque. The pictures from the drive kind of speak for themselves, but it is with a quiet voice - you really have to experience it to get the full effect.

Coming into Nelson is a treat. You have been ascending into the mountains for hours, so the climb has been almost imperceptible. When you look at the map, after you cross this gorge (photo is posted of the gorge) you are a stones throw away from town. A quick glance at the watch says you are making good time, everyone says it takes 5 hours and you have been on the road for 4.5. Then you spend two full hours negotiating the switchbacks. And arrive wondering who could have possibly done that in 5 hours!?!? Susan started to get sick and she does not typically suffer motion sickness. She thinks it was my driving. As for me, I felt like I was piloting a rally car and whenever I got a chance to think about something other than 'which direction will the next turn be' - all I could imagine was how much fun all of my motorcycle riding relatives would find this road. It would be exhausting though, and I think very dangerous. Eventually, you do pop out of the mountains and land right smack dab in the middle of the Tasman Bay area. We stayed at our friend Tussock's (the rafting guy) sister-in-law's backpackers. They own two backpackers (a hostel) in the northern part of the south island, and they recently added family rooms. It was quite nice actually, we had a queen size bed and Aidan had a single - and we had an en suite bathroom and shower so we did not have to share with the hikers and such. It was conveniently located near town and the beach, and they have free hot chocolate pudding (in the British tradition) with ice cream every night.

We spent a lot of time just wandering about in Nelson. It is such a lovely town. Check out the one picture taken from the street and note the hanging baskets. All of the streets in the downtown section have these enormous, beautiful hanging baskets about every ten feet on the street! The whole town is plumbed with automatic watering systems on every basket, it is incredible. Nelson is an artsy fartsy kind of place. There are a lot of artists, artisans, craftspeople, musicians, nomads, drifters, hippies - you get the idea. It makes for a very colorful sort of place. A lot of street musicians and such are playing throughout the day, live entertainment in a lot of cafes and restaurants at night. Several days each week have open air markets where people come to ply their wares - be they arts and crafts or fresh fruits and vegetables. We spent lazy afternoons on the beach with Aidan. He loves to play in the water. They also had some nice playgrounds down at the beach where he was able to play. All in all it was a lovely time but we still have to come back again. We didn't go back to Abel Tasman park which is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen on Earth. We also still have not gone out to Farewell Spit (so named because it was the last thing that Captain Cook saw as he was leaving after his discovery of New Zealand.) I think now that the "Ultimate Tour of NZ" would include no less than 7 days in this area (more if you included a significant trek - of which there are many in the region). Like everything else we do here, it just leaves you yearning for more!