New Zealand #8: Picton & Nelson
Mood: 
|| Blah
Tune : Watching Torchwood: Children of Earth
July 4: Because of an annoying roommate typing away loudly until at least 1am and having to get up at 6am for my ferry I didn't sleep too well this night... The ferry trip with the Interlander from Wellington (North Island) to Picton (South Island) lasted for 3 hours and was quite scenic. I was however too tired (and it was really cold on the deck as well) to appreciate the view - I only went outside once to snap a few quick pictures.
Picton is a tiny little village with very little to see and do. I checked into my hostel and did a 2 hour long walk up the mountains which was fairly nice. Though it was raining a bit and the path was very muddy so I was more sliding than walking (and my freshly washed jeans became all dirty again...).
I crawled into bed fairly early and started catching up with Fringe (I wanted to be caught up before SDCC came around, but that was before I knew it'd clash with the Heroes panel, gah! I can't believe they made me chose between Zachary Quinto and Joshua Jackson). I've only seen up till episode 13 now but I adore this show now! Like with so many other TV-shows I follow it had a slow start but it really picked itself up.
The foggy view from the ferry
And so we have arrived
Gloomy harbour view
The Interlander leaving for Wellington again
July 5: Today the weather was even worse than the day before and I dragged myself through the rain to the bus station. I watched an episode or two of Fringe inside the terminal before my bus pulled up. The trip to Nelson went smooth though the weather didn't clear up much. Luckily for me it was mostly dry as I tried to find my way to the hostel, as I took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up walking around for quite a while.. When I finally arrived it was fairly late on the day already so I decided not to head out into the rain again, but hope the following day the weather would've cleared up. Instead I watched the movie Once, which was surprisingly really great.
View from the bus
July 6: This morning I woke up to a sunny day, hooray! I quickly got myself organised, made good use of the free breakfast in the hostel and chatted with one of my roommates for a bit who gave me some ideas as to what to do in Nelson. As today was my only full day in Nelson I wanted to make good use of it.
My first stop in the city centre was the i-site where they gave me some excellent print-outs of walks around the city. One was centered around the art and old buildings in Nelson, the other around the Cathedral. I combined the walks and they took about 3 hours in total to do (plus another 20 minutes with me getting lost once or twice, lol). While 1 day is definitely enough to spend as a tourist in this city I really loved it there. The mountains surround the small town centre, so wherever you look you can see colourful hills going upwards with now and again a house or small settlement nestled between the trees.
After the two longer walks I browsed through the city centre and the shops, where I picked up some awesome old books on Shakespeare (second hand book shops: they make my suitcase weigh like it's filled with gold...). With my now heavy bag I went to do the hike up to "The Centre of New Zealand", the exact spot that is - you can guess it - the centre of this lovely country. The hike was a lot steeper than I thought, but I made it! For a moment I thought I had suddenly gotten really unfit because I felt pretty tired when I reached the top, but when I saw all the red faced sighing people around me I realised it wasn't just me, lol The view from up there was amazing though and well worth the effort.
I sat down there for a while, soaking up the amazing view and munching away on five mandarins or so to get some energy again, that was really nice. After that I made a quick stop to my hostel to drop off all the books before I made my way to Founders Park. Unfortunately the park was nearly closing by the time I got there and I didn't think it was worth the entrance fee for the 15 minutes or so I had left so I snapped some sneaky pictures through the gates and made a nice long walk along the water.
A sunny day in Nelson
Part of a huge beautiful mural at the library
Nelson has a lot of random art like Wellington
Golden cupid statue in the Queen Gardens
Blossoms in the middle of the winter (!)
The Christ Church Cathedral
A beautiful pipe organ
I love stained glass windows <3
Church tower and steps
True fact xD
View from the centre of New Zealand
Pinpointing the exact spot
Evil red beaked duck on the verge of attacking the other two
Pretty building in Founders Park
More pictures can be found HERE.
|| Blah
Tune : Watching Torchwood: Children of Earth
July 4: Because of an annoying roommate typing away loudly until at least 1am and having to get up at 6am for my ferry I didn't sleep too well this night... The ferry trip with the Interlander from Wellington (North Island) to Picton (South Island) lasted for 3 hours and was quite scenic. I was however too tired (and it was really cold on the deck as well) to appreciate the view - I only went outside once to snap a few quick pictures.
Picton is a tiny little village with very little to see and do. I checked into my hostel and did a 2 hour long walk up the mountains which was fairly nice. Though it was raining a bit and the path was very muddy so I was more sliding than walking (and my freshly washed jeans became all dirty again...).
I crawled into bed fairly early and started catching up with Fringe (I wanted to be caught up before SDCC came around, but that was before I knew it'd clash with the Heroes panel, gah! I can't believe they made me chose between Zachary Quinto and Joshua Jackson). I've only seen up till episode 13 now but I adore this show now! Like with so many other TV-shows I follow it had a slow start but it really picked itself up.
The foggy view from the ferry
And so we have arrived
Gloomy harbour view
The Interlander leaving for Wellington again
July 5: Today the weather was even worse than the day before and I dragged myself through the rain to the bus station. I watched an episode or two of Fringe inside the terminal before my bus pulled up. The trip to Nelson went smooth though the weather didn't clear up much. Luckily for me it was mostly dry as I tried to find my way to the hostel, as I took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up walking around for quite a while.. When I finally arrived it was fairly late on the day already so I decided not to head out into the rain again, but hope the following day the weather would've cleared up. Instead I watched the movie Once, which was surprisingly really great.
View from the bus
July 6: This morning I woke up to a sunny day, hooray! I quickly got myself organised, made good use of the free breakfast in the hostel and chatted with one of my roommates for a bit who gave me some ideas as to what to do in Nelson. As today was my only full day in Nelson I wanted to make good use of it.
My first stop in the city centre was the i-site where they gave me some excellent print-outs of walks around the city. One was centered around the art and old buildings in Nelson, the other around the Cathedral. I combined the walks and they took about 3 hours in total to do (plus another 20 minutes with me getting lost once or twice, lol). While 1 day is definitely enough to spend as a tourist in this city I really loved it there. The mountains surround the small town centre, so wherever you look you can see colourful hills going upwards with now and again a house or small settlement nestled between the trees.
After the two longer walks I browsed through the city centre and the shops, where I picked up some awesome old books on Shakespeare (second hand book shops: they make my suitcase weigh like it's filled with gold...). With my now heavy bag I went to do the hike up to "The Centre of New Zealand", the exact spot that is - you can guess it - the centre of this lovely country. The hike was a lot steeper than I thought, but I made it! For a moment I thought I had suddenly gotten really unfit because I felt pretty tired when I reached the top, but when I saw all the red faced sighing people around me I realised it wasn't just me, lol The view from up there was amazing though and well worth the effort.
I sat down there for a while, soaking up the amazing view and munching away on five mandarins or so to get some energy again, that was really nice. After that I made a quick stop to my hostel to drop off all the books before I made my way to Founders Park. Unfortunately the park was nearly closing by the time I got there and I didn't think it was worth the entrance fee for the 15 minutes or so I had left so I snapped some sneaky pictures through the gates and made a nice long walk along the water.
A sunny day in Nelson
Part of a huge beautiful mural at the library
Nelson has a lot of random art like Wellington
Golden cupid statue in the Queen Gardens
Blossoms in the middle of the winter (!)
The Christ Church Cathedral
A beautiful pipe organ
I love stained glass windows <3
Church tower and steps
True fact xD
View from the centre of New Zealand
Pinpointing the exact spot
Evil red beaked duck on the verge of attacking the other two
Pretty building in Founders Park
More pictures can be found HERE.