Nelson 07/06/2008

So we went from Queenstown straight to Franz Josef and tried to do the glacier there but unfortunately it was all booked up. Thankfully the full day trip at Fox Glacier was still free so we did that instead. The trek itself was long and difficult in places, one of the Scottish girls did slip and nearly twisted her knee, but it was a great day out. The scenery is just fantastic. Next day we made our way to Westport where we did a nice coast walk past a seal colony. On Thursday we made our way up to Nelson and again went on a few walks. There was one walk to the Centre of New Zealand which was up a huge hill! Friday we went to the Abel Tasman national park. We took a water taxi ride to a place called Bark Bay and walked all the way back to Torrent Bay and then Anchorage. The national park is just beautiful. There's lots to see on the way down and we only did about a quarter of it. It's the type of trip that you'd want to do over a number of days, camping out at the huts or camping areas in the park. That was a long days trek though. So that brings us to today and we're about to make our way to Picton to meet the ferry that will take us to Wellington. Yes we managed to fit in the New Zealand v Ireland rugby match and I can't wait! Hopefully it'll be a good match and we don't make a show of ourselves. We can only stay in Wellington for one night though as we want to make our way down to Christchurch for the 9th. So we'll be getting the ferry back at 9 the next morning. Nice.

Just 5 days left, Paddy.