Nelson and around

04/03/2013
 Our priority today was to buy a new camera, preferably not going into Christchurch to get it. So, where did we end up? In a shopping centre in the middle of Belfast! Belfast is a northern suburb of Christchurch and we were happy we didn’t have to go any further. We very quickly found a shop selling what we were looking for  and now we own an idiot proof, waterproof, dust proof and drop/shock proof digital camera and it’s blue. We also found a shop that could burn our photos from the smashed camera onto a disc, so now , by a miracle of modern science we have our photos on our shiny thing.
 Because we spent so much time buggering about in Belfast we decided on a short day, driving to another Alpine cum spa resort, Hanmer Springs. We have been to spa resorts before where there are hot thermal baths. Jane likes them but I’m not comfortable with them, so , she spent a couple of hours going all wrinkly and I went to the pub. We have vineyards in our sights now as we are close to the Marlborough Region. One more foray into the hills and the top end of the Southern Alps then we will give the Marlborough wines our undivided attention.

05/03/2013
 Up into the hills again but this time the views were nowhere near as awesome as the previous trips. After the disappointment of not being able to photograph Arthur’s Pass, we thought we may get a second chance driving over Lewis’s  Pass at the northern end of the Alps. It is described as the lowest crossing of the Alps and to be truthful if it hadn’t been written on the map we wouldn’t have realised we had gone over it. The usual non existent, or crap signage,  probably didn’t help but the whole thing was singularly un-spectacular. We got a couple of nice photos of the hills above Hanmer Springs, and a few more river shots later, but altogether a non photo day.
 We have driven much further than we intended and finished the day in the northeast at Nelson. We meant to park up earlier but between here and Hanmer Springs there isn’t a lot.    We had lunch at the small town of Murchison which claims to be the white water rafting capital of N Z but there wasn’t much activity as there is very little water in the river, hose pipe bans imminent!
Nelson is a large city and handy for places of interest (we have already passed lots of vineyards) so we will stay here for two nights or more.

 06/03/2013
  Other than vineyards this part of N Z seems to have the perfect climate for growing fruit and veg.  We noticed this as we drove out to Abel Tasman National Park for the day. There are dozens of orchards growing apples, plums, red pears, kiwi fruit, avocados, apricots, peaches and nectarines, and loads of vegetables.  It’s interesting that supermarkets here sell fruit as it comes, with blemishes, bruises and odd shapes, not the Tesco mentality that says everything has to be a perfect looking specimen. An apple here tastes just the same, warts and all.
  Abel Tasman N P covers a huge area and is Trampers  (walkers)  paradise with just a couple of roads in and out . We drove as far as the road went to the tiny village of Marahau and spent a few hours in the warm sunshine paddling in the sea and catching a few rays. From Marahau you can catch a water taxi that takes you out into Tasman Bay round the headland and drops you off at a place called Anchorage Bay…….you walk back……takes two hours over the headland, we gave that a miss.
 We are going to stay in Nelson for another night as we have a couple of boring admin jobs to do, and we need to send all of the winter gear we foolishly bought for our stay on South Island back to the U K. Less than 2 weeks now until  we fly back to the tropics.

07/03/2013
Once again we have spent more on postage, sending stuff back to the UK , than the contents are worth. It does mean we won’t have to lug that weight through several sets of customs at various airports. Now there is lots of room in our bags it doesn’t mean we can fill the space with cheap clobber from Bali or Malaysia………but I bet we do!
 We have discovered that the photo albums we have been studiously putting together recently and sending via the shiny thing have not been reaching everyone we thought we were sending them to. Nobody said anything, so how were we to know? Maybe they are just plain boring. Anyway there may not be any more as our dongle has run out of monetary credit and we are not going to spend another 70 Bucks to replace it for a matter of 11 days that we have left in New Zealand. The girl in the Vodaphone shop said there are plenty of  giga/mega/bugger bytes left, or whatever they call them so we will try to re- boot the thing. If it fails, then we are left with visits to internet caffs, only found in large towns, or camp wi fi systems that are generally useless and expensive. We will see what happens.