Queen Charlotte

We woke up in the empty hostel and quickly had breakfast (fried eggs on toast) because we wanted to get out walking. We drove down the road to park our car at the start of the Queen Charlotte track and set off. It was quite lovely walking along the edge, looking out over the sounds and the little bay we'd been staying in. The whole track would take a few days to walk so we only walked to a lovely lookout which took us about an hour and a half to get to. Unfortunately, we had to walk back the way we came which wasn't the most fun but we still appreciated the views on the way back. 

When we got back to the car we jumped straight in and drove on to Nelson which took us less than an hour. Nelson sits on the northern coast of the south island and apparently is the sunniest place. It was certainly sunny when we got there. It's a nice town but there wasn't a lot to do. Firstly, we got some lunch from a supermarket and sat in a big park on the outskirts of town to eat. We had lovely ham and sliced beef and coleslaw sandwiches. This was quite a late lunch so we thought it best to find a hostel afterwards. The hostel we chose was a little out of the centre but was very close to supermarkets. This meant after we checked in we had to drive back into town to do a little walk to the centre of New Zealand. This is the central point of the whole of New Zealand and below this is also the place where the first New Zealand rugby match was held (it's just a playing field). To reach the centre we had to walk up quite a steep hill that curved round and round. We ended up taking the wrong paths at times so it took a lot longer to get up than it should have done. However, when we made it up there the sun was very low in the sky and the views out over Nelson and the sea were quite lovely. 

After our little walk we went to the supermarket to buy our tea. On the menu tonight was a stir fry. We had chicken and grated carrot and green beans and noodles all coated in a lime and chilli sauce. It was a nice change and I was quite impressed with the sauce although there wasn't enough of it because Matt has so many noodles. We did end up with leftovers though so we boxed that up for lunch tomorrow. Tomorrow we want to walk some of the Abel Tasman track so we spent some time researching it and what route we can do. We enjoyed a nice glass of blackcurrant squash while doing this as we'd treated ourselves to a bottle. We're rationing it so we're only allowed a glass a night but it made a nice change to water and the occasional cup of tea.