Nelson and Abel Tasman National Park

Nelson was the next stop, and the best hostel for free stuff so far...free veggie soup and free breakfast (which we made the most of by taking extra bread for our lunch as well....mmwwhahaha!) It was a really cosy hostel with Sky movies and a cat that claimed one whole sofa in the TV room each night...but he was so cute! You had to let him!

It was from Nelson that we did a day trip into the Abel Tasman National Park for a trek. You know how you sometimes go for a walk but to get to the place you want to walk you drive, well for some reason to get to the walking track in Abel Tasman from Nelson we had to get a coach, to get a tractor, to get a speedboat, to get the water taxi ( a bigger boat) to get to the bay at which we started our walk! Bloody crazy! But it was another really sunny day and the walk was through a really nice rainforest (with not too many steep parts which made a change!) alongside the Malborough Sounds so all was good!

On our last day in Nelson (as we'd already gone to see the Jeweller in Nelson that made "The One Ring") we headed out on the STEEP walk up to the Centre of New Zealand Monument which provided a great view of Nelson and Abel Tasman NP. I stood on top of a pillar on the hill there and shouted out that I was in the middle of New Zealand like a crazy fool! Then it was time to leave....quickly.