Nelson

Trine and Jens, the two Danish travellers with whom I'll be doing the Abel Tasman trek with.
Endless vineyards in the North of the South Island

First view of the South Island from the ferry

I'm finally to the South Island, and, after getting off the ferry, I took a bus a little bit west to Nelson, one of the bigger towns in the South Island. It's still quite small by American standards and the whole town more or less shut down around 6pm (even Starbucks closed!). The bus ride took me through the Marlborough region which seemed to be just one vineyard after another. Haven't tried the wine yet though.

I sat across from a couple from Denmark on the train I took a couple of days ago, and seemed to run into them over and over again during my short visit in Wellington. Then, sure enough, they showed up on the same ferry I was taking. We got to talking, I told them of my plans in Abel Tasman, and they asked to join. So I helped them book everything and now they will be joining me for the next three days in Abel Tasman. It should be great to have some companions for a while. They're really friendly people and we just got back from getting groceries for the trip. Interesting how you meet people when you're travelling. Reminds me of something I forgot to mention about the train journey. People liked to wave as the train went by every day (and only one train runs a day). Some guys working on a farm, however, had a better idea and mooned the train! It made me think of my dad :)

I was wandering the streets of Nelson tonight looking for an ice cream and heard some live music so I followed my ears to a pub that had some live jazz going on (old-time stuff). Not the greatest band I've ever heard, but it was still enjoyable to be around music for once in three weeks! I really do miss it. From what I've gathered so far, it seems that New Zealand really doesn't have an arts scene that can compare to what we have in the US, but I suppose that's really no surprise considering how small the population is (~4 million). Auckland had a few things going on, but nothing like what is around Washington.

So tomorrow we take a water taxi to about halfway down the Abel Tasman coastal walk, and then we'll walk to the end. The track goes along the beach for much of the way and is a pretty flat and easy trek, so we've packed a lot of good food and wine and our packs will be a bit heavy. I think both the campsites are on the beach, so I'm really excited. That said, I won't be able to write until Saturday here, so goodbye until then.

-Brian