Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Nelson, New Zealand


We arrived in Auckland just to stay the night and catch a flight early the next day. Kia Ora is the Maori (the indigenous people of NZ)  greeting! And although we didn't visit with any Maori tribes (there really aren't any still existing because they have all integrated into the social system as doctors, lawyers, business people, etc.)we did learn the Haka because of the "world cup champions" the All Blacks rugby team chant it before every game. Rugby is "the sport" in New Zealand learned by all children at a very young age (starting at the age of 5).  One memorable moment was upon our first arriving into Nelson and being hungry, we stopped for the "right Kiwi thing to do" according to our driver/guide John, fish and chips.  They were delicious and won't be soon forgotten. Kiwi's do many things well, and fish and chips are no exception.

We spent several days in Nelson on the south island. We stayed at a beautiful b&b(picture a big English estate with acres of pure beauty) where the grounds were full of fruit trees, olive trees, flower and vegetable gardens, cows, sheep, and a big pond that had resident ducks and wild ones. Chris and Bryce enjoyed feeding them every day. Here we were once again spoiled by all. We stayed in the guest cottage that was truly extraordinary (our hostess used to be a designer in England!) and filled with every amenity possible.  Drinks were served every night with our hosts Bobbi and Peter and then dinner – the chefs here were amazing!!  They introduced us to hokey pokey ice cream and we’re hooked! We also enjoyed dining with other guests from around the world.

I love it here! 99% of the food is organic and grown or raised locally! Most of the products we used at the b&b were also local! NZ is basically a self-sustaining country with heating oil and gas being the exception – just an amazing place!

 We went on several adventures - mountain biking, "quad biking" (we call it four wheeling), soaring on a sky wire (the only one in the world) - its like zip lining on a chair lift over a huge gorge (for almost 2 miles) going over 50 miles an hour - we had so much fun that we did it twice! We also saw one of the oldest trees in the world here - it was huge and just over 2000 years old they think. On another day we went for a boat ride in the ocean into the Abel Tasman national park - we hiked into cleopatra falls and had lunch on a beautiful secluded beach accessible only by boat - then we went kayaking and fishing – Bryce and Chris both caught a big fish! Bryce thought it was awesome!  Off to Queenstown .
Water taxi that got us into the Abel Tazman
Cleoatra Falls in the Abel Tazman National Park
Fish and Chips!
Annie!
Quadbiking adventure
The Skywire or also known as the Flying Fox

The ducks at Eden House
Our firends at Eden House - Peter, Bobby, and Annie
Mountian biking in Nelson
Hokey Pokey - vanilla ice cream, honeycomb, and carmelized sugar - and a whole lot of yummmmmm

Rainbow at Abel Tazman Bay


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