HERE WE ARE ON THE NORTHWEST COAST OF NZ!

Monday, January 10, 2011 - Nelson - (Happy Birthday, big sis Jan!!!) - We DID have the green-lipped mussels at the "Slip Inn" at the marina before we left and they were divine--will have to post those pics next time...not downloaded yet!   Just got into Nelson and it is the "sunniest place in NZ" and the sun is out and it is quite a lovely town about the size of Olympia downtown (have no idea about population).   Geoff has friends here that we will see tomorrow.   Missed the jazz festival but we have been having a great time.  Right now we are sitting inside "The Free House" a former cute little church converted into a pub having a "pint" before dinner!  Here is "the latest crapola from Sue down under":

Saturday, January 8, 2011 – Picton – (Happy Birthday to my little sis, Kath!) –We left Kaikoura this morning early and went by the seal colony.   There were several seals sunning themselves on the nearby rocks, which was pretty cool. 

·         As we were walking along the beach, a man and woman chatted with us and then he says “look at the dolphins!” and there were a half dozen (or more) dolphins playing in the bay—jumping out of the water fairly high—it was a real thrill!   Not close enough to get a decent picture, though!

·         Saw a couple herd of deer as we were driving out of town—obviously “farm raised” inside fences!   There is a “stag sale” coming on January 13^th!

·         So I saw lots of interesting birds (plus the usual “shite-hawks” as Geoff calls the seagulls), dolphins, deer, cows, lots of sheep (this time the sheep were walking in a line rather than the cows!) and horses!  Beautiful country though browner! 

·         Hit the NZ Wine Trail!   Marlborough Wine Country and lots on vineyards and wineries! 

·         Arrived in Picton and parked the campervan at the Top 10 Holiday Park there.

·         Decided to have dinner out and as we started down the road, Geoff spotted:

·         Walked 500 km into town and went to see the menu at Seumus’s Irish Pub (Geoff, of course, has been there before!) .   Lovely place with great owners!

·         Shared an order of Chicken/Leek/Mushroom Pie with Mash and salad for dinner. ..YUM

·         Met Gus and Trish (Geoff thinks her name is “Chris”—guess we will have to find out!)   They were a fun couple ! :)   from Sydney on a short “holiday"! 

·         Listened to “Thieving Gypsy Bastards” until 1 AM

·         ---what a fun time—drinking Guinness (Geoff) and Isaacs cider (me)

·         and the lead singer/guitar/fiddle player was from Dublin and the rest of the band were Irish, too (first there were 3 then the brother of the drummer joined with his mouth organ—these 2 young men were the sons of the pub owners).   The place was jammed and hopping…what a fun time we all had!

·         Zzzzzzzzzzzz  oh, love. S&G xo  nitey nite!

SUNDAY, January 9, 2011 – Havelock – 9 PM

·         Forced ourselves to get out of our warm bed at 8:15 AM (after that late night!) and headed out of Pictin towards Queen Charlotte & Kenepuru Sounds.

·         The weather is a bit overcast but not raining—makes the views of the water grayer then the beautiful blues & greens that we usually see.

·         Drove a road that has at least 50 mudslides (found out that they were from December 29^th so no wonder they aren’t cleared and repaired yet!).

·         Headed parallel to the Queen Charlotte Track (it’s one of the famous NZ walking/biking trails) out to Portage Bay

·         Ponga Cove 

·         Had ice cream at Te Maiha 

·         Along the winding road (and it was VERY winding!) Geoff pointed to a white with black spotted horse (looked like a Dalmatian skin on the horse!) and said it is probably named “DicK”, so I asked why and he said there is a dessert in England called “Spotted Dick”!   Haha!!!!!!  J

·         Beautiful views of the sound…just breathtaking! 

·         Drove over some rough roads but back on the main South island roadway (2 lanes!) and landed here in Havelock where we are spending the night before heading to Nelson.   They are famous for their “green lipped mussels” so we will have some before we leave here tomorrow!  

That’s all for now.  Love, Sue & Geoff xo