Nelson

Went for a run along the grey sandy beach this morning – so weird the colour but understandably with all the mountains so close to the beach. Packed up and then headed east towards Nelson. The driving is just unbelievable. Most of the scenery can be seen just from driving around and the big windows in the motorhome really help! We headed straight for the city centre and went on the tourist walk around town stopping at the beautiful church at the very top of the hill. They had a Christmas tree decorating competition so we walked inside and had a look at all the different variations from local groups who had decorated the trees so differently and with contrasting themes. We then wandered around some lovely bookshops, craft shops and had a nice coffee. It was great to spend a day just wandering and relaxing. In the afternoon, we headed to the local beach – Tahunanui beach and Michael, Celeste and Hamish enjoyed a swim (too cold for Amayah and I) and we had fish and chips by the water. We tried out luck at Freedom camping again and ended up camping in a car park in the town (along with a bunch of other motorhomes!). We are trying to alternate a holiday park with freedom camping as we have everything we need in the motorhome and it is quite expensive to stay every night with a powered site. Anyway, it was an interesting experience, let’s just leave it at that!Read more