It was quite good timing as to when we arrived in Nelson, as there's a Saturday market on, so Jacquie took us to that on her bikes (Alice had her own, and I was getting a backie). She first took us to her favourite coffee stall, where the man talked us into getting one of his wholemeal flour, apple, and cinnamon deep fried balls, which we ate at the table next to it (I was sat on the cushion I had from sitting on the back of Jacquie's bike). I didn't think much o...

was difficult getting up to be ready for the bus to pick us up at 7.15 (since 3 course breakfasts seem to take a while, especially when you talk as much as when your with Pat and Alan, and it's about half an hour drive away) but we were there with 10 minutes or so to spare. After a bit more sleep, I spent the bus journey trying to think of all the catchphrases from the past couple of days: · (Alan when we eat breakfast): Breakfast is the most important ...

We felt like we shouldn't keep Pat and Alan waiting for their breakfast as long as the past couple of days, so we were out the house and on the way to Sumner at a much more reasonable time. Sumner had been quite a well off area, because of the views from some of the houses on the cliffs, but then the earthquake had caused the cliffs to fall down so that they were right on the edge, or even worse, fallen down with them. There were more shipping containers, this ti...

The morning's activity was going to New Brighton, where some of the worst earthquake damage was. We had a walk along the pier, where there was quite a few fishermen, and some plaques and bricks with names of people who had donated to help build it. We walked back through the library, which we spent a while in- Alice was looking at South America guide books, and I was amusing myself by reading the English Lonely Planet guide- I was astonished when I saw there was ...

I thought we best be up at 9 by the latest, given that Pat and Alan had made their comment about their Scottish relatives who had visited the few days before we got there staying in that late, although I think me and Alice could have done with staying in a little bit longer. I did feel a bit bad though that they had waited for breakfast to have it with us, and because there's so much talking involved we didn't finish until about 11. We then drove into the city c...