We have been in Nelson for the past two nights and its really nice to stay somewhere for a while! Its a small city with a local feel but still has a fair bit in town. We took a walk around on saturday and went to the iSite, but didnt book anything up as we couldnt quite decide what would be worth our money. Everything is just so expensive. We finally decided on freelance kayaking around the national park (the price doubles to add a tour guide) but was then told we could only do it in pairs...

The hostel is really nice and quite big. Its got ladders in random places for random rooms and also a large pool, hot tub and sauna (yes its still a hostel!). The also do a free breakfast, free soup in the evenings and we got given free noodles so a really good find by anna!

I finally had a lie in on sunday! Weve been waking up so so early for so long now. To follow that, we just lazed about by the pool for ages, i topped up my tan a bit :). Anna phoned up the kayak company directly and what a surprise - no problem for 3s... iSites are not our favourite peoples at the moment. We also went to the cinema here last night. We saw Last Song, some dodgy chick flick which ended up not even good because it was cheesy as it was really sad too! oh well...

We had to wake up pretty early for kayaking today, but Abel Tasman (the nature reserve) is stunning so its worth it. It was somehow decided that i would end up in the small kayak... it was awful! To get to the islands where the beaches are, you have to kayak this long stretch first, i did not do too well with this and pretty much died on the way out. It wasnt the paddling that killed me though, it was the position i was sat in, every stroke felt like a sit up... by the 200th stroke i was in a lot of pain.

Its a lot easier in the double and anna kindly switched with me for the second half after we pulled into wasp central beach where I had a panic attack. You wouldnt think it was a good day by the way im describing it but the scenery was stunning, the sun was shining and kayaking can be fun.

We saw seals! Theyre adorable and some just slept in the sun (good thinking). Anna struggled a fair bit on the way across after we saw the seals which was fair enough i think but she powered through it - trooper!Its a really good system there, theres water taxis all around in case youre in trouble and if you tell them where youve left your kayak, you dont need to bring it back yourself. Which is exactly what we did as the thought of kayaking back through that strip, with the wind against us was too much after lunch and we opted for a 5.5km walk back. We're pretty fit these days!

Were back at the hostel now and I am so ready to crash! We've ordered takeout and we're just packing tonight in order to go to Fox Glacier tomorrow. Im looking forward to an early start again tomorrow and a 10 hour bus journey very much....