From Abel Tasman we headed for our Xmas destination...Nelson! We had decided to treat ourselves to a little luxury and had booked ourselves a cottage. After the hotel getting our booking wrong we finally got into our cottage and found that it was everything we had hoped for complete with 4 poster bed, spa bath, double shower, fireplace, a courtyard overlooking a stream, Sky TV, and a DVD player...bliss!

We had scoured South Island for santa hats and finally found some last thing on Xmas Eve. Sadly they only had one santa hat so Mark had to make do with being 'Santas Little Helper' in an elf hat complete with pointy ears!

We celebrated Xmas with a meal at a pub over the road called 'The Honest Lawyer' (is there such a thing??? Ouch, lawyers calm down, don't hit me!!!) The Xmas meal wasn't quite the traditional turkey meal - the curry vegetables and potato gratin came as a bit of a surprise and Kim was gutted by the lack of pigs in blankets (sausages wrapped in bacon for those heathens among you who don't know!) In the evening Kim whipped up a delicious anti-pasto spread (smoked salmon, olives, salami, roast vegetables, sun dried tomatoes, feta cheese and brushetta) washed down with a bottle of plonk and a massive bar of chocolate - yum!

Sadly the budget wouldn't stretch to more than 2 nights living the high life so on Boxing Day we were in Picton, dossing down in a hostel painted with pictures of octopi, with other scummy travellers. Kim was rather taken with Kelvin, the resident hostel cat...until he leaped through the window and started ferreting about in our bags at 3am...bad Kelvin!