Nelson

Nelson is on the coast, right at the Northern end of the South Island. Now since Queenstown is only about a quarter of the way up the South Island, and duel carriage ways are as rare as the kiwi in New Zealand, unfortunately we had a bit of a trek to get there. OK, a trek through yet more stunning scenery, this time predominantly mountainous. The most striking things we saw were some large turquoise blue lakes in the Southern Alps (have a look at the photos below). They were amazing – as if someone had dissolved vast amounts of copper sulphate in the water. Apparently the colour is due to the mineral composition acquired by the glacial melt. What minerals? I don’t know! But it looks incredible!

Anyway, after a good 12 hour drive we arrived at Nelson, which turned out to be a pretty little didn’t have the energy to wander far the following day! But after a bit of recuperation we spent a day driving to the west side of the north coast, to Farewell Spit. This is a huge sand-spit, stretching miles and miles out to sea in a graceful curve to the north east. You could see it on an atlas or satellite image – a bit like a scimitar sticking out from the top of the South Island! As it’s pretty remote, Farewell Spit acts as another reserve for rare birds and seals to bread. So if you go to the right place you can see baby seals playing in pools on the beach!

On our way back to Nelson we called in on the edge of the Abel Tasman National Park. This reserve takes up a large part of the mid section of the north coast, and is pretty inaccessible by anything other than boat (or walking I suppose). We only had time (erm, daylight) for a short wander near the water but it was still lovely.

Anyway, we now leave for the north island by ferry – and intend to round off our visit to New Zealand with fire. Literally! We plan to spend the last few weeks in the geothermal areas of Taupo and Rotorua where you can find hot-springs, bubbling mud, geysers, steaming pools… yet another contrast!