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Clear heads and an early morning greeted us the day we left Wellington. We had found a couple of free breakfast vouchers in our room so before leaving we helped ourselves to the free continental breakfast before heading for the bus, it was then onto the ferry.
On board the ferry and a couple of hours later we travelled across the Cook Straight and reached the South Island. The weather was alot nicer than what we had left in Wellington and our bus started to make its way through picture postcard scenery. A single black ribbon of tarmac made it's way through and past hills, lakes, mountains and vineyards, the South Island had picked up where the North had left off.
The Kiwi bus no longer stopped off in Nelson overnight but was still an optional hop off on the way, we took this option. With this in mind we had pre - booked our accommodation, 'Accents on the Park', which in the Lonely Planet is described as "affordable luxury", this description was spot on. The place was spotlessly clean in both bedrooms and bathrooms. It had a touch of home and with possibly the friendliest man (Royce) in the world to greet and check us in.
As it was later afternoon we took advantage of the remaining sun and had a stroll around town before going to buy some supplies from the supermarket for dinner.
On our first full day in Nelson we again woke up to sunshine and when we went down to the kitchen for some breakfast. It was here we found out, everyday there is free fresh bread avaliable. We are not talking supermarket own brand, sliced bread, but fresh from the bakery, slice your self bread, in a number of varieties, this was turning out to be a great hostel.
Deciding to make the most of the nice weather, something that has been in short supply of late, we decided to walk to the geographical centre of New Zealand. We left our hostel and strolled about 10 minutes away from town before coming to the base of another hill. At the top of this hill was the centre, if you want to get there you have to work for it. The climb was fairly casual and 20 minutes later we were at the viewpoint, looking out across Nelson. After admiring the view and standing on the centre, the wind picked up and we decided to head back down.
The rest of the afternoon consisted of a trip to the supermarket, where we got caught up in the moment and bought a bargain price Avocado (not knowing what to do with it really) before heading back to the hostel and coming over all grown up, sitting on a small balcony out the front of the hostel both reading books in the late afternoon sun.
The highlight of the evening was Belle knocking up a tasty little guacamole which turned out to be very nice and especially as it was the first time she had made it as well.
The other nice touch that the hostel had was a free hours worth of wifi each day, something that again we appreciated, you don't really get free internet anywhere out here, why couldn't all hostels be like this one?!
After two days of lovely sunshine our luck ran out on the third day as it rained near enough all day. Despite this we still managed to get out of the hostel and headed down to a bead shop which was in town. Im not sure that Belle expected such greatness from the shop but I think it is fair to say she was like a kid in a sweet shop...an adult in a bead shop. If it wasn't for our backpacker budget I am fairly certain that Belle would have attempted to buy the entire shop. I think ideally, like Hoi An, Belle would have liked to go back to that shop with an empty suitcase to fill, which would be tricky as there were millions of beads. I couldn't believe how many there were. Although not a suitcase full, Belle did buy some of what was on offer. I'm afraid to say that was all we did on our last day in Nelson, with the weather so rubbish there wasn't much else on offer.
The next day we packed up our things, checked out, waited around for three hours at the hostel before making the 10 minute walk to the bus pick up point. Although the weather was nice and this made waiting for the bus more bearable, the down side was that I was wearing shorts and got eaten alive by a army of tiny flies. Belle, wearing leggings managed to come away unscaved. After a hour and a half of waiting and getting bitten, we both started to wonder where our bus was. We knew that the arrival time was only a rough one, due to the bus crossing the cook straight on the ferry etc. but we felt like it should have arrived by now and started to talk about the possibility of it forgetting us. With this in mind we decided it might be best to did out our paper work to make sure we had booked a bus. We had, the only problem being it was for the following day, with no Kiwi bus expected in Nelson on our chosen date. After double checking everything it was infact clear that we should have booked 4 nights at the hostel instead of three (we still don't know why we only booked three?). Feeling slightly annoyed with ourselves (mainly because we had wasted most of a beautiful day) we decided to make the 10 minute walk back to Accents on the Park, where again we were greeted by the friendly Royce. We also bumped into two girls who had started to travel New Zealand on the Kiwi bus but then decided to give up with it and get a refund, another glowing review, although we couldn't fully blame the bus for our mistake this time.
We checked back in and tried to make the most of what was left of the day and went for a stroll, visiting a cathederal and gardens before going for a drink, not alcoholic this time though, with a coffee and hot chocolate on the menu.
Back at the hostel we made some dinner before getting some sleep, ready for our second attempt to leave Nelson....or that was the plan at least. Our old nemesis had returned, the bloody loud snorrer! The culprit had booked into the hostel late and after laying eye's on him myself and detective Belle concluded that he was potentially a snorrer, we got no pleasure what so ever from our guess being correct. Belle somehow managed to get some sleep or at very least put up with the constant sonic boom which was our room mates snorring, with me on the other hand cracking and going to find refuge on one of the armchairs in the corridor. This is where I spent the remainder of the night, reading and drifting off occassionally, despite still being able to hear the raqet from down the hall.
By the time it was time to get up, check out and then wait around for another 3 hours before heading to the bus, its fair to say our morale was pretty low, a bit like when we arrived in Coffs Harbour after Byron Bay. It didn't help that Belle was feeling under the weather and that we had another hour and a half wait for the Kiwi bus once at the pick up point, with both of us feeling abit gloomy we boarded the bus (eventually) for our next stop.
The last night didn't ruin our time in Nelson though as we had 3 good night and 4 good days, bar waiting around for an imaginery bus. As we mentioned the Kiwi bus doesn't stop here over night anymore and we can't really understand why, it's a lovely little town with great accommodation options, especially if you stay at the all singing, all dancing, Accents on the Park.
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