February 14th till 16th.

Well it was Valentines day and the sun was shinning when we arrived so we headed in to town. We visited the oldest restored street in New Zealand which only had a bout 20 houses on it but still looked really nice. Then, thanks to the lovely Mark who sent me out some money for a Valentines treat, we sat outside a lovely bar in the sun and ordered a nice bottle of local wine (the Ned) and some potato wedges. It was absolute bliss! The bar owner was ever so helpful with his recommendations and half an hour later we had booked in for a wine tour; a full day affair with all tastings and gourmet food experience! Thankfully Mark to the rescue again as he has kindly offered to pay for the wine tour for me (he owed me an xmas pressie!).

On the Sunday we headed to Abel Tasman national park - it was a 2 hour bus trip away (getting a bit fed up of the buses now) but worth it when we got there. It was a lovely sunny day (not actually that warm as the breeze was very cold but perfect for walking). We took a cruise in the Tasman Bay (where the split rock is) and got dropped off up the coast so that we could walk back. We did the 12km walk and it was actually a bit easy so perhaps a harder one would be better next time. It was beautiful scenery as we walked all along the coast. You walk along cliffs then drop back down again to secluded beaches. We stopped and and had our pack lunch on a beach along the way and arrived back a bit early so sat in the sun and waited for the bsu to take us home.

The following day was the day of the gourmet wine tour. There was only four people in our group, Charlie and me and an older retired american couple from Kentucky. We were taken round to different vineyards and were giving around 4 or 5 tastings in each place. We even got to meet the wine maker at the second and last place. We had cheese and meat platter to start us off and then at a later vineyard we had lunch (I opted for the most expensive on the menu as it was included, a good steak). They did manage to over cook it though so not quite as gourmet as I was expecting but still great for a treat. A couple of vineyards later we had our desert which was Pavlova for me - the New Zealanders claim they invented it so I thought I better see how they did it; I can report it wasn't as good as my Mums. At the 6th vineyard old Kenny bought me a lovely bottle of Pinot Gris, very nice of him aye then things started to go wrong. I hadn't really noticed that I had got myself a bit tipsy (Charlie can't drink red wine due to migraines so I had been having her share of that on top of the white) so stupidly got a bit over enthusiastic after a great tour of the vines and decided a would buy a case of wine!!! It cost me a bloody fortune but I was like yeah just put it on my Visa sod the expensive!! Shipping alone was 60 quid - what a bloody idiot!! Within hours I had sobered up enough to realise what a stupid error I had made - I obviously completely forgot I was on a tight budget with a whole 4 months of travel still a head of me!!!! Arh well I am sure it'll taste nice when I get home. I had a brilliant day, I could definately get accustomed to leisurely days like that!!

Sadly early next morning it was time to say bye to the lovely Nelson and head to Greymouth for my revenge...