Thank god for the inside-out - back-to-front rule or i would be in deep trouble this trip! I came away from home with at least 7 pairs of underwear, progressively i have been haunted by some perverse theif intent on taking his/her share of my dirty undies!! I am now down to just 3 pairs,which is very difficult considering we do washing about once every 10 days!!! Now this is where the rule comes in, trnsforming 3 days wear of my boxers to 12 days!!! BARGAIN!!

On a more normal note, we are now in Nelson enjoying our first real chillout since we have hit Nz. It has been so rushed as we have to drive every single day and have clocked up 3000kms already, with the North island still to go!! In spite of this we managed to grab one spare day from our schedule, and decided to add it onto our time in Nelson, giving us a good 3 days in the same place, with no driving!!!!

Nelson is a really nice little city with enough shops and amenities to keep you going, but keeping that community feeling. It also has a niceish beach close by and an apparently beautiful coastal national park nearby. Added onto this we have hit gold with our hostel once again - The Green Monkey, ran by a couple from England who seriously can not make this place any nicer. There are free herbs, spices, tea, coffee, hot choccy, home grown lemons and pears and to top it all off they bake some cakes/cookies/scones every day for the guests to eat (a max of about 15/16 ppl). It really makes the stay so nice, and we met a nice German couple last night which we spent the morning with today down at the local arts, crafts and produce market which was really good! (Chris the owner even copied one of his cd's that i liked for me).

So as i said today we went to the market which was really nice, although Sarah being the sucker that she is for stalls and hippy stuff persuaded me to chip in and we came away with a bag of fresh plums, fresh tomatos, some venison smoked sausages and some anti inflamatory cream with all these oils and stuff in for aching muscles and other stuff too. Normally that would not have worked on me, but today, well my forearms feel like they are going to drop right off my elbows. the reason for this is that i did a session (only lasted 1 hr!!!!) of rock climbing!

We just bowled up to the centre and i fancied a go, so the guy fitted us both with a harness, gave me a couple of tips and we were away - with me up on the wall with my life firmly in Sarah's hands, who was belaying me (the person at the bottom who controls the safety rope etc). It was really good fun, but after about 20 mins i started to embarass myself with my distinct lack of strength, fitness and agility whichi i seem to have lost over the last 5 yrs drinking too much beer, and neglecting my athleticism! Sarah was keen to get me abck up the walls, that was until she started gettin rope burn on her hands from the belaying.

All in all it was wicked good fun, and the owner was a really nice guy who had been to more places in the Uk that we had together!!! He ahd even been climbing all up the Pembs coast (said that St.Davids is one of THE top places you can do it) and all across Devon!

After all this exhaustion and hard work (we had already cycled to the beach that day) we cycled back home and were tipped off by the climbing guy about a really good micro brewery just up the road - how could we say no?? There was also a nice little restaurant there that every friday has a special night (except this friday!!) which is called the Chefs night off - you go along with your own food (fish and chips or something) and sit down in the nice garden area and you can have a nice few fresh pints of brilliant ale with your meal!

Unfortunately it was some special weekend, so we couldnt eat there, but instead went for a pint! The ale was so nice, and cheap that we ended up buying a 2litre bottle of Generation Ale for about 3 pound 50, before being asked to sample their new flagship ale Fair Maiden pale ale ... and you guessed it, it was so nice that we bought another 2 litre bottle!!!

After this, we trekked home and decided to have some CLASSIC Swansea fare - chips and cheese!!! Katy you would be proud of us!! We popped over the road, bought our first nice bag of chips from here, and grated some good old cheese all over, and even added a tin of beans to fill us up!

No plans for tonight, just pasta and a glass of ... ale!!!!!! We have to sort out the car as it is going back tmw, so we have to tidy the major accumulation if junk before we leave tmw at 8am!!! Unfortunately the rugby game was on Friday night in Wellington so we wont get to see a game which is a shame, but never mind - we get a new car in Monday!! yey!!

x