Early morning yesterday to get the Wellington-Picton ferry. The photo is of the sunrise from on top. I sat in the cinema style seats at the front (inside) and succeeded in not falling asleep and enjoyed the view with a touch of reading. Anti social I know but later I caught up with people on top as we came through the Marlborough Sounds at the top of the North Island which had stunning rolling fog coming from the West. It is hard to describe how eerie it was. I lost myself stating at the waves and clouds as we went along towards Picton. Home of a very welcome satay chicken pie and tan slice. Way better than thingy's quiche thing.

After the few hours I spent with Cuddles, the bus driver, who was pretty awesome (but who I have heard reports of getting up tight with customers when the company cocked up), I got off at Nelson!

NELSON - My notes
Cute and beautifully set.
Ironically ugly clock tower.
Modern church tower; a bit like the structures firemen train on.
Loads to explore.

The hostel was my favourite so far in NZ. So much for so little and it had such character - our bedroom was like a kids den. The kitchen was huge and the table had a throne at each end. The tv room was actually a landing above the office and there was a jacuzzi next to the swimming pool across from the volleyball court. We also got free (good) breakfast and evening soup with awesome bread very healthy! I soon met german Jule who introduced me to canadian Mattao, english Matt and a few others who we drank the vodka snow, another version of tequila slammers, with (icing sugar instead of salt and line instead of lemon). The vodka was like petrol so we ended up investing in cranberry juice too. I met german Alex too that night at some point, also in our room.

Today after a clumsy recovery from the mayhem last night I have been into town 4 times with 4 different people over 4 different bridges. And learnt to skateboard when I went in on Alex's skateboard to get supplies from the supermarket. I also adopted a tub if PB from the hostel. Just before bed me Jule, Mattao and another German girl teamed up for a massage train on the tv deck with yummy raspberry white Whittaker's chocolate donated by Jule, who I might start falling Jewel-ee because she was/is so precious to me. I got the impression that mine and Jule's massages were the best, the others didn't really put in the effort...