Nelson - Dec 28, 2010

We were originally scheduled to do a Kayaking trip this day, but much to our disappointment it was pouring rain when we woke up. A quick call the the kayak guide confirmed that the trip was indeed canceled. Since it's the busy season, they were completely booked up for the rest of the week and were unable to reschedule!

We called a few of the other guides in the area and luckily found one that would take us the next day, assuming the weather cleared up.

We spent the rest of the morning indoors waiting for the rain to stop. Around 1pm the weather made a dramatic change and got nice and sunny. It pretty much stayed like this (very sunny and temperatures in the high 20's) for the rest of the trip!


We walked around Nelson and had lunch at Falafel Gourmet. Our friend Amy grew up in Nelson and told us the Falafel house was a must stop. It may have been over-hyped a little, but it was still a great meal. ;)

After our lunch we decided a hike was in order. We made our way along the Maitai River, which was overflowing in some parts. It had rained almost non-stop the full week before we arrived, so the water was very high.












The path we were following wound along the river then up the hillside. At the very top of the hill is the "Centre of New Zealand". Technically it's not the exact geographical centre, but close enough. This was the point used by the early surveyors. The view from the top was great:







I'm really not this terrible with a camera! I had to take this picture from a strange angle so my shadow didn't cover the plaque!


A Tui seemed to follow us on our walk back down the hill:





After the hike we slowly made our way back to the hostel. We made a quick stop through the Queens' Gardens along the way: