The Center of New Zealand

We're in Nelson! It's a small city on the north coast of the South Island. We've found it to be a really cute town, with the personality of the houses somewhere between Charleston and New Orleans. We're staying at this crazy hostel called Paradiso, which was actually someone's mansion at one point. As our bus driver told it to us, the owner of the hostel is a German guy who ran a bus circuit up and down the west coast of NZ for several years with great success, until his business was eclipsed by companies like Kiwi Experience and Magic Bus, which offer circuits of the whole country. At that point he sold off all his buses but one, bought this mansion in Nelson, and converted it into a big, rambling hostel complex with his last remaining bus parked in the middle of the yard and furnished as a hang-out space. It's a pretty interesting place, but out "camp site" is kind of a joke.. It's really a dirt strip behind a hedge on the corner of the property which we share with about 7 other tents. But whatever, we don't need much space.

Today we were around town in the morning taking care of the necessary errands etc, and then in the afternoon we hiked up to the The Center of New Zealand! They actually measured the middle-point based on the farthes north, south, east, and west points of the country, and stuck a little monument on a hill to let everyone know. It was a short but quite steep climb up one of the hills bordering the city, and from the top we had some good views of the surrounding mountains (the beginnings of the Alps), the large natural bay Nelson sits on, and Abel Tasman National Park farther on up the coast of the bay. I took a couple of pictures, but it was pretty overcast and a bit drizzly, so they didn't come out very well.

Tomorrow we'll be heading up to Abel Tasman by bus and water taxi to do a bit of a hike. We'll be dropped off about 12 km along the Coastal Track at a beach accessible only by foot or boat, and from there we'll hike back down the southernmost segment of the track to the carpark at the entrance. I think we're both excited to start some real hiking, so that further along in our adventures we can tackle some of the more challenging, multiple-day treks. The land around here is beautiful, and will be a good place for us to get started.

Sorry no pictures this time, as our hostel's not set up to read my cameras' memory card. Will post as soon as possible!