Nelson is a really nice city we had a wander round an got our bearings. Nelson is surrounded by beautiful countryside one side where you can look up and see the mountains and then the other side is the sea. James's friend from school Dave is currently living there so he came to meet us after his work. Him and his housemates were super lovely and let us park in their drive/garden whilst we stayed. The house is huge and about 9 people live in the big house right in the centre of town right next to the cathedral. Everyone was so welcoming, we had a nice chilled evening with some beers. The next day Dave was at work again so we explored the city a bit more, stopping for lunch and coffees in the sunshine! Dave soon caught up with us as we had a nice afternoon in a cool beer garden with a yurt in it. James tested the local beer and I tried some boysenberry cider . . . twas good! We then chilled out in Dave's garden having drinks with his mates and housemates then went into town for the night. It was good fun but we felt a bit worse for ware in the morning!!! We did manage to get up for the 'Santa Parade' though. It was so surreal but awesome! The sun was shining and everyone was wearing sunnies an suncream but children and adults were walking, biking, driving, quading, dancing, skating etc dressed in elf and Father Christmas outfits with fake snow coming off the floats. We love it, It was strange thinking that it was December and nearly Christmas whilst making sure your not burning in the sun! We then dashed off and said our goodbyes as we had booked the Heaphy trail for the next day and had a 6 hour journey to do!