Wellington to Nelson

We were up early this morning to get the 8.45am ferry to Picton on the South Island. The ferries are actually old Stena Line ferries that used to operate on the Dover-Calais crossing! Some of the warning signs are still in French!

We had breakfast as soon as we got onboard which was about 8.00am. We were based in the bar area so we settled down for the ferry journey. About 15 minutes in I started feeling a bit queasy so I went to the reclining seat area and it was so bad! Up and down all about! A lady came through calling to see if every one was ok. i was like nooo! So she moved me into the club lounge area which is more to the middle of the boat and doesn't move as much! The club lounge is just a normal area on this boat, it still says club lounge from the days of crossing the English Channel! I felt alot better and towards the end of the journay I went on to the observation deck for the views.

In Picton we boarded the bus for Nelson. There was a few people already on it and some of them were from the Magic bus tours! Basically the guide/driver hadn't realised that there was no bus running from Picton to Nelson today so Kiwi Experience took them!

We headed through the Marlborough region which is famous for its vineyards. There were thousands of them! It was so beautiful because the mountains in the background were so dramatic against the wide plains of vineyards!

Our first stop was Pelorus Bridge where I tried a Mussel Fritter, it was ok but not great! At Pelorus Bridge the river is gorgeous,so clear! A few people went for a dip!

We then drove onto Nelson and got dropped off at our hostels. I stayed in the YHA which was really nice. Only problem is that my bus driver hadn't booked me in! I got a nice room though!

I then went out for a wander through Nelson. I was meant to stay here for another day but the weather was meant to be really bad and I was planning on a full day kayak so I opted to carry on with the bus and do the half day kayak the next morning.

Nelson was ok, just another town really. What was special is that about 45 minutes walk out of town there is the centre of New Zealand! There's a little memorial and everything! Apparently - I didn't go as I was still feeling quite rough from the ferry! So I walked about found Starbucks and walked upto Jans Hansen jewellers who made the gold rings for the Lord of the Rings Movies! They were sooo expensive about 200 pounds for the cheapest!

I headed back to the hostel after this as all the shops had shut! I watched Whale Rider which is a New Zealand movie, really good! Then I watched Kill Bill 2 as I hadn't seen that either!