Nelson

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Trip Start Dec 20, 2008 Previous
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  Nelson, South Island, New Zealand
Friday, February 27, 2009

So we drove through Arthurs Pass, from Christchurch to Franz Josef Glacier. The drive itself wasn't as impressive as we had heard it was because of all the rain. Ended up getting a small cabin for a few days once we got to Franz Josef which was a great chance from the hostel life. Had our own kitchen and some privacy which was nice. We were going to take a trip up the glacier but it ended up being too much money so we walked around a bit on our own. Took a 45 min walk to the mouth of the glacier in the pouring rain. Had to cross some glacier fed rushing rivers.... kinda fun, but got soaked! I guess we hit a pretty bad weather front so the visiblity wasn't as good as it could have been.

Then we drove north to Greymouth. The city itself isn't too exciting but our hostel was great! The owners of the place are world travellers so they have artifacts and artwork from all over the globe hung around the whole place. It had a really homey feel with a great fireplace... so it was a good spot to stop for a few days until the rain stopped. We used their bikes one day and cruised around a bit...

After a few days there we drove north again to Nelson. (lots of driving in the last week!) Nelson is part of the Malbourogh Wine District and is also the start off point of the Abel Tasman National Park. Its a great mix of wineries, orchards and the beautiful Tasman Sea.

We rented a 18 foot boat yesterday and spent the day cruising around the Abel Tasman. It was raining in the morning but by 9am it was cleared right up. Turned out to be a great day... did some wakeboarding and tubing, had a picnic lunch on a white sandy beach, went fishing. Some of Wes's friends came with us... they are from Germany and had never really been in a speed boat, wakeboarded or fished before so they were in heaven!
We ended up catching some small Kingfish so the guys were pretty pumped. Wills $40 fishing rod that he bought down here has definately come in handy!

The hostel that we are staying at here in Nelson has a swimming pool so we might end up staying here for a little while. We might look into some fruit picking jobs since this is the area of NZ to do it.

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light house in the Catlins	the guys	Franz Josef Glacier in the rain	Downtown Dunedin
Catlin Beach	Fence post	light house	fields
Southern tip of the south island   Comments!	yellow-eyed penguins   Comments!	2 young ones with their mom   Comments!	petrified forests... can you see the logs?
sunset in the Catlins	cave men	sheep in yards	cathedral Caves   Comments!
catherdral caves   Comments!	beach shot   Comments!	Jacks Blowhole, 200 m inland from the sea	giant ferns   Comments!
McClain Falls   Comments!	Falls   Comments!	The Nuggets	Nugget Point
Train station in Dunedin	Cathedral in Dunedin	Church in Dunedin	Dunedin University
Shadows   Comments!	Another cathedral in Dunedin	Otago Peninsula   Comments!	Otago Peninsula   Comments!
sheep	sunset in the Otago Peninsula	One lane bridge with train tracks	Maori Boulders   Comments!
Boulders   Comments!	the cliff hangers   Comments!	pancake rocks	pancake rocks   Comments!
Me and Wes	Caution Penguins	Abel Tasman National Park   Comments!	Abel Tasman
Davids first fish!!   Comments!	another fish

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