July 19th (Sunday) - Day 140 - Nelson (Abel Tasman National park)

Our bus pass includes a number of extras, the Able Tasman national park. The bus picked us up from our hostel and drove us for an hour over to the national park. Once there we jumped on a boat which took us 45 minutes north into the park. It dropped us off on a really stunning beach and we than had to make our own way back. All 12km of it. It was designed to take 4 hours but we had over 6.5 before the bus picked us up. We had a wander around the beach and then headed off for the long walk. I won't bother going into details; just look at the pictures to see how stunning the area is. We stopped off at most of the beaches on the way back and ended up getting back about an hour before the bus picked us up. That was an excuse to get an ice cream from the nearest shop (about 1km away). Sure enough the bus picked us up and dropped us back off at our hostel. That evening we found a place doing really cheap Sunday roasts; we thought it would be terrible but it's the best one I have had since I have been away.

July 20th (Monday) - Day 141 - Nelson

Sarah had seen a leaflet for a sky wire ride (more later) and alongside the leaflet was a quad bike tour. I agreed to do the sky wire if she'd come quad biking. Before long we had it all booked up and were heading out of town to the 'happy valley' farm. As soon as we arrived they got us kitted up with waterproofs, overly large winter coats, helmets etc and before we knew it we were being shown how to control the bikes. The guy taking us round put us on a mini test track to get used to the bikes however I don't think Sarah quite got it. I'd already done 4 laps by the time she reached the track. She did a few laps but the gears just wouldn't work for her so the guy went off to get her a more powerful bike but with gears on the handle bars. It didn't help her confidence that he told us many times that if we crashed we would have to pay for the damage. I don't think that helped her confidence levels to much either. Finally she got the basics and we set off. The first part was to cross a 2 foot river which just set the excitement levels high from the start. We spent about 30 minutes climbing the side of the valley. Poor Sarah didn't want to push it to hard so me and the guide had to keep stopping to let her catch up. The last bit of the climb was really steep so he made Sarah jump off her bike and sit on the back of his. This is when we reached the sky wire. The best way to describe it is similar to a cable car with a wire crossing 2km over a valley and in places over 500 metres up in the air. But instead of you going nice and slowly like a cable car, they let the clamp go at the top and gravity pulls you out to the middle of the valley 500 metres up in the air at about 100kmph. Once you reach the middle it then clamps on, takes you to the far side of the valley and lets you go again, this time backwards. The pictures of the edge don't do this thing justice. The scale of it is enormous. We had to put on a hat and gloves as it was really windy (hence cold) and then we got strapped in. In true thrill ride fashion it took you just a little over the edge and before we had time to realise we were being pulled down the wire faster and faster. It was so windy and all the trees were rushing past our feet. That lasted for at least a minute but it is hard to tell in that situation. Once we reached the middle it took about 5 mins to take us to the other side of the valley and once again it unclamped and we were flying backwards. We reached the start and the guy shouted to us did we want to go again. As soon as we said yes the clamps came off and we did the whole thing over again. The second time round I noticed a garden gnome on the far side of the valley. I forgot to ask why it was there!? After catching our breath and taking in more scenery we drove to yet another view point. This time looking out to sea. We got treated to chocy biscuits and a cup of tea before headed down the other side of the valley to river. At the bottom we were presented with a circuit track that we could really open up the bikes and push them to the limit. I did about 3 or 4 laps at top speed before we headed back to the farm. They then dropped us back in town. Once back I spent ages on the phone booking a skiing package for Queenstown then we head out to the centre of New Zealand. Literally the geographical centre. It happened to be at the top of a large hill with more excellent views. We wandered into town and I found the shop that I wanted to get t-shirts from the other day. I ended up getting 1 and the lady told me about more shops in Queenstown with a wider range so I'll be paying them a visit.