I stayed at the recommended hostel in Nelson, which was indeed very nice. Nelson has a sort of Santa Cruz-y feel to it. People were walking around barefoot, so I figured the beach must be within walking distance. When I asked, however, I was told that it was several miles away. I enjoyed it, but I think I prefer the feel of Wellington as a city.
What struck me when I got to the south island was how much it reminded me of the California foothills. They haven't had much rain here recently, so the hills (especially near Nelson and Marlborough, which is where their wine country is,) were pretty dry.
Today I took a bus from Nelson to Westport, where I was collected by the owner of the hostel I'm going to be working at for a while. He and his "partner," as he addresses her, drove me back to the hostel, which was about 100 km away on very windy roads. On the way we stopped at the beach, which was beautiful. It's a very mountainous area (the whole country seems to be, actually,) and the hills were all misty off in the distance.
I was shown my room, which for now I have to myself, as there is only one other WWOOFer here and no guests right now (which is odd, since it's summer.) This other girl and I hung out and chatted with the owner and manager and then cooked dinner, and it was very laid back and pleasant. It seems there's not that much work to do, really, especially when there are no guests. They are short on water, because I guess they get all their water from rainfall, so I'm not allowed to take a shower (but they have a motel up the road which has an available shower.)
The name of the hostel is Rongo, which means Peace in Maori. It seems like a very peaceful place, so far.
