Golden Bay

Hello all- It is Thursday afternoon and we are enjoying some great weather here in Nelson on the South Island. Today we took a water taxi up and around Abel Tasman national park and then did a 2 1/2 hour tramp (hike) from one bay to another through the mountains! The pathway was very narrow (at best 3 feet across) and we went up major steep paths with inclines down a long, long way.  Add on top of that, a swing bridge that we had to cross so that added to the height factor! On the way up the coast, we saw dusty dolphins at play and happened to come upon a seal who was having fresh octupus for dinner -  very fun to watch. Normally one only sees the seals warming themselves on the rocks.

Backtracking to yesterday- It was a travel day as we took the ferry across from the North Island to rhe South. The ferry is quite large, big enough to take a whole lot of semi's and railroad cars, plus all of the regular cars and camper vans. (Dave wants to now paint his engine for his train that he sets up at Christmas with "KiwiRail"-the rail car being loaded on the ferry) We enjoyed sitting in the club class section. Jan sat and talked to a fellow who was retruning from Wellington after placing his father in an assisted living center so she now knows all about how the system works here in NZ with senior problems.  Upon arriving at Picton, we picked up a red Ford Focus and made out way up to Nelson, enjoying the views along the Queen Charlotte Drive.  The only problem we ran into was finding our hotel.  Once again we had to traverse mountains to get to Nelson and the sun was setting.  Our accommodations were at the outskirts of town and we ended up to the end of the ocean point before backtracking to get to our hotel.  It certainly was not lit up like ours in the States but it turned out to be very nice.  Only problem is that we did  not grab something to eat on the ferry so the oatmeal we took along on the trip served as our dinner.  Luckily we rose early this AM to grab a decent breakie!  (A little Australian talk thrown in there for you!  We are a bit sunburned but loving the warm temperatures.  That's it for now.  Down to Greymouth tomorrow and maybe a wine tour along the way.
New Pics coming.......