A nice Nelsonian and sunny weekend

Martina, Frankie and Antea, posing for my 1st picture with my new camera ;)

On Friday pm, I was free from 4pm and for the rest of the weekend ! I went to buy a new camera, mine being half-dead and reparation being too expensive etc. It was a great offer, a camera 2x better than mine, for less than 100 CHF!! And I was so lucky because I went to the shop just in time to buy the very last one they had! Good bargain, good timing, Charlotte happy! My luck continued, I was in town when I ran into 3 friends. It’s so cool to meet people I know in Nelson :) I like it! We all went to have a coffee, sitting in the warm sun :). Then I biked to Tahuna Beach where I went swimming at last! The sea is the perfect temperature, not too cold, not too warm! So cool to be in the sea in December!! Whaou! I love it! ;) I spend an hour reading on the beach in this late afternoon and then had a quite evening at home.

Fifeshire rock again... I like this light... and on the right we can see the mountains where I was a month ago, in the snow ;)

On Saturday, I wanted to sleep in, for the first time in a looong time, but mister B was a bit too noisy… impossible to sleep later than 7.30 :S. I went running for a while and then biked to town. I met Martina, Antea and Franky at the market. Now that summer is there, the market is so much lively and pleasant than before ;) and I found some really nice souvenirs! We had lunch in a nice cosy Café and then walked to Maitai River. We went for a swim in the river, it was so cool (in both senses)! The water was cooler than the sea, but really refreshing. And as you can see on the pictures, the place is really nice, the water was very clear and pure. A nice experience! Now I know where to go at the end of my nanny days when I want to relax! :) 5 minutes biking and I can be in the river! Whereas the beach is 20 minutes from my place. I really enjoy the moments I can spend with the girls I know here. Meeting all of them was really the best thing which could happen to me, and it really made my stay in Nelson much more exciting, pleasant and it made me happy too!
In the evening, we all went at Martina’s for a barbecue. Very nice evening on her host family’s terrasse, with a nice sunset, nice meal, nice people :)

Cha in the Maitai

Maitai River

All my friends are finishing their school next week and they are all going in different directions afterwards to travel in the island. Apart from the three I’m joining to go surfing and swimming with dolphins (:D :D :D) in Kaikoura next weekend, I won’t see any of them in NZ anymore… It makes me sad to know I will be alone again for my last two weeks here. But the good thing is, as they are all Swiss, I’m sure I’ll see them again, back home! :D And having them around for all that time was really great! I don’t regret one second my stupid intrusion at the girls’ café table 1.5 months ago!

The typical kiwi sign (I couldn't believe I really saw one! usually you see them as sitckers on the cars :)

On Sunday, I rented a car and drove to Nelson Lakes National Park (1h30 driving). It was my first driving on the left experience with an automatic car! A piece of cake! ;) I was very happy to drive, I felt free hihi! The only thing I found hard was to remember not to use my left foot when starting the car ;) hihi! It was a good thing to drive for a short way only for my first time. In two weeks time, I’ll drive something like 12h in one weekend…
When I arrived at the park, I started my walk d’un bon pas, comme on dit ;) Apart from the first 30 minutes, the whole way was along lake Rotoiti, which is very nice and very Swiss-like ;) I wanted to go to a waterfall called Whisky Fall. The information centre said it was a 5-hour walk return, meaning ~2.5 hours on way. But I guess that I walked very quickly or that it their calculated the time with 100 breaks… cause after 1h05 I was already there!! The fall was very nice and all the water in the air was very refreshing on this hot summer day! It was not even noon, so I decided to walk a bit further. Then I found a desert beach where I had my picnic and went back along the same way. It was a really nice walk! It’s just a shame that I had planned the whole day to do it and only needed 3 hours ! ;)

Lake Rotoiti

Whisky Fall


My private picnic beach (Ca m'a fait pense a notre chere Grotte:)

Me in front of the nice view

Because I had time and the car for the whole day, I went back in direction of Nelson, stopped at the neighbor town, Richmond (not very interesting but now I can say I’ve been there…), went to Monaco again (cf my article of mid-october) but this time with the sunshine! ;) and it was really nice!!! And then, back in Nelson, I went to the beach! How pleasant it was to swim and refresh myself after my walk and driving in the hot sun! ;)

Monaco

Now I’m writing from a cyber café in town (oh yeah by the way, I don’t have access to the Internet from home anymore, so don’t be surprised if I’m less in touch, sorry…) and I am about to go and give the car back.
I really made the most of my Sunday I think! I had planned to go only to Nelson Lakes, but having walked so quickly, it occurred that having a car was very handy to do many things until the end of the day! ;)

Well, a nice weekend again! Only three left now… Next week I’m leaving from Wednesday to Sunday (I’ll go to Marlborough Sounds and Kaikoura), a big trip-holiday! ;) I’ll post my pictures and tell you about it next week! :)

I hope everything is fine back home,
See you!