Now in Nelson

This rather complicated travel has been successful finally, and here we are in Nelson and have met up with Carole and John and have had a lovely afternoon and dinner with them. We woke up this morning in Queenstown, freezing, temp 1°, and rugged up and had breakfast at a bakery Amr had found - good coffee and croissants. Then we leisurely headed off in the bus to the airport where it was warm and comfy, and relaxed till our flight to Wellington left (on time!), and on arrival had about 25 mins till we boarded the little plane that brought us to Nelson, just a 25 min flight. Got taxi to our accommodation here, which is within walking distance to everything we need and very perfect…this time we have huge space (which we don’t need!) - it is a little apartment! We come back here for one night at the end of the walk too. Much warmer here - we were able to shed many layers of clothing.

So we meet C and J and had a walk round the town, sort of got our bearings. Had a sojourn in a wine bar/cafe and had coffee and snack as we realised we hadn’t eaten since the croissant ages ago.

Everywhere in NZ is so beautiful….mountains, islands, coastlines….flying planes must be fairly hazardous!! But luckily our pilots knew what they were doing!! Again there are spring new leaves and blossoms everywhere, and Amr and I went on a river walk to stretch our legs before dinner. Had a casual and just right Asian meal at Mama San which had many favourite choices from various countries, and did it well…and it even was BYO so we could get a nice NZ Pinot from a liquor store!

It’s now only 9.30, but we are retiring horizontally…today we woke at 6am, and realised it was 4am Oz time…so we can feel tired! Tomorrow is day 1, but not a walking day - we get picked up and transferred to the beginning point, and a very fancy lodge where we spend the first 3 nights, so we can unpack a little and our washing may dry! Each day we walk and somehow get back to the lodge…! Anyway it will be fun.

Will put up some photos of the river walk. None of the 4 of us yet…we thought of it at dinner but only when we had a pile of empty dirty plates! This will come!Read more