Thursday 17th May

Wellington
I spent Monday exploring the small windy city of Wellington. To begin the day I walked up Mt Victoria, situated behind my hostel, for a fantastic panoramic view of Wellington. The city is surrounded by mountains therefore not allowing much potential for further development. However, following a large earthquake not so long ago Wellington gained some land from the sea, which the harbour and mueseum 'Te Papa' inhabits.
Following my short walk I caught a cable car up through the Botanic Gardens, explored a very compact, although interesting, mueseum regarding the history of the cable car, before meandering back down to the city through the gardens.
Next I booked myself on a tour of Parliament House, Beehive and Libraries primarily to see the well-reknown earthquake shock absorbers located in the basement. The tour, although long-winded, was very interesting. The small iron and rubber cylinders located in the basement allow the building to move inresponse to an earthquake should it happen. Wellington is very vunerable to earthquakes as it sits on three plates.
After the tour I went to quickle see the treaty that I have learnt so much about. Unfortunately the treaty has been severly damaged, particularly from rats, when it was stored securely in a basement! I popped in the building next store, which is Old St Pauls, made completely of wood. Inside it was very dark but the beams running through the building are very prettyu.

Nelson
On Tuesday I caught the ferry accross to the South Island. The crossing was very calm and enjoyable. At one point there were hundreds of dolphins swimming infront of the boat and I'm not exaggerating!
Upon arriving in Nelson I walked up a hill to the exact centre of New Zealand! Here I admired the scenery and accross the estuary to Abel Tasman, the nature reserve I would be walking through.
Wednesday, the bus picked us up at a good time of 7:50 to transport us to the national park. Arriving in Marahau a few of us were directed into a speed boat (water taxi) on top of a trailer! A tractor towed us and reversed us into the water, where the speed boat took us up along the coast to admire the coves and scenery before dropping me at Barks Bay ready for my walk back! The Park is beautiful, surrounded by lucious green hills, the coast has pretty sandy beaches hidden away. At one point I crossed the river on a swing bridge, it moved a lot more than I first anticipated! Then at Torrent bay I had the option of two paths, a low tide or high tide. As the tide was half way out I decided on the low tide and waded my way accross the bay dodging crabs as I went. It was great fun! The rest of the very short four hour walk was on a wooded path, which got a little boring, the occasional view through the trees though was absolutely amazing and very picturesque. I will upload some photos as soon as I have the time!!!
After the trip back I had the intention of going for a swim however the pool was closed. So, Lynne and I got fish and chips from the local fish and chippy (the cod was delicious) and went out to the pub to meet up with the rest of the magic crew!

Greymouth
Today I've been travelling on the bus until 6pm so I am very tired, so we are to play monoploy and get an early night. Tomorrow we head to Franz Joseph and prepare for a glacier hike on Saturday.

P.S. Appologies for the lack of posts over the past few days I've not been able to get to a computer!