Tuesday 1st July
We got up to a beautiful day, with the sun shining outside and a nice surprise of freshly baked bread sitting on the kitchen counter. It was just another little perk that guests in 'The Bug' are treated to each day, and a nice gesture on behalf of the owners. It's things like this that make places stand out and get people to return time and again: it may not seem like much but it makes a very good impression, especially to people a long way from home and on a tight budget.
We were low on supplies so we took a trip to the supermarket to stock up. After we were done there, we visited the Department of Conservation (DoC) Office to find out information on the Abel Tasman trek that we were due to start a few days later, so that we could plan our trip better. We stopped in at a few camping stores to pick up some more supplies, and then took a walk on the outskirts of Nelson, on the 'Centre of New Zealand Walk', and this gave us a better glimpse of what Nelson was like. A river runs through the town and hills surround it on several sides; small wooden houses are dotted about. We got an excellent view over Nelson and the mountains in the distance, and it was a good short excursion, and a nice bit of exercise ahead of our more intense trek through Abel Tasman National Park.
We walked back to the hostel and made some dinner of roast chicken and vegetables, a better quality of dinner than I had been used to in NZ, and it went down a treat. Danika and I spent the rest of the day just chilling out, and planning our trip to Abel Tasman, and making arrangements for picking our German friend Thomas up from the ferry in Picton, where he was due to arrive the following morning with the intention of joining us on the trek.
