Nelson, Ferrys and smelly places (Steve)

After the pleasant hostel in Greymouth, we headed north to Nelson, before getting the Interislander ferry from Picton to Wellington. Nearly two weeks later, as I write this, I cant remember anything that great about Nelson, other than the fact that it has the geographical centre of New Zealand, conveniently placed on top of a hill, who'd have thought it!

The next day we drive to Picton where we manage to kill 3 hours (it seemed) over a coffee whilst we hung out aimlessly untill the ferry was due to arrive. When it did we took our last glimpses of the South Island and looked forward to the Volcanic North. The South island is absolutely stunning and everyone should visit if they can.

Arriving in Wellington we have accidently booked a hostel just 1 km away from the ferry terminal, right near central Wellington. We stayed in a converted hotel that the Queen stayed in in ......1954, it has slid a bit by now, still, it had art-deco character. Our plans for the next day were nearly hampered by us choosing to be in town of one of only TWO days a YEAR that they close the cable car, so a steep walk later saw us get to the Carter Observatory to look at the sun through thier special telescope, only it had clouded over and wasn't exactly as open as we had hoped. Still, foe all that good luck Wellington is a nice place to stop in, sadly none of its reputed 11 fault lines rumbled so we are still to experience an earthquake on our travels, one day.....