Sun Sun Sun

Nelson is known as the official sunniest city in New Zealand. Feeling as though we needed to experience this sun after far too many gloomy cloud covered days in Dunedin, a few friends and I decided to take a road trip. We were lucky enough to be accompanied by Gayla, a Canadian whose family moved to NZ a few years back and live in Nelson. She wanted to surprise them by visiting, and so we ended up surprising her family with not only a visit from their lovely daughter, but 4 other stranded visitors as well. They graciously welcomed us with open arms, plates of delicious food, and comfy beds. We are so grateful to them for letting us stay last minute, they were the best!

Our trip began with an, umm, short, 9 hour drive. We went up along the east coast of the South Island, and then took a shortcut through the Southern Alps by way of Lewis Pass. When we arrived in Nelson, the Mask Parade had just finished, so we missed the parades of people in costumes, artsy masks, and concerts, but we were just in time to see the remnants of what looked to have been an extremely fun night...

These are a few pictures of the drive there. We kept seeing these fields of yellow flowers, and of course fields of sheep. In the land of 44 million sheep, it was difficult not to pass sheep farms every few miles, or kilometers I should say I suppose.
The morning after our first night in Nelson, we stopped at the Nelson market. It was filled with local artists boasting all sorts of handmade crafts. We were in a hurry to make it to kayaking, so I had to be extra decisive, and probably bought way too much.
Following the market, we rushed to sea kayaking, after having gotten lost looking for a Petrol station. Fortunately they hadn't left without us, although the coordinator of the Kayaking trips yelled at us quite a bit, and even had the gall to say we were lieing about getting lost... She certainly managed to ruin the beginning of our kayaking, but once we were out on the water with our guide, far away from her burning glares, things looked up again. The water was a bit choppy, a storm was coming in later, but it made for some roller coaster waves. We kayaked through caves, around rocks, and even saw some wild seals out sunning! My eyebrows were crusted in salt by the end of the trip, and my arms were incredibly sore, but it was really fun.


The next day, we drove out to Golden Bay, westward along the Northern coast of the South Island, to go Horseback riding on the beaches there. The drive was slightly terrifying, as it started pouring rain as soon as we entered the winding mountain roads. I'm not going to lie and say we didn't have a few near death experiences involving hairpin turns, hydroplaning, and head-on almost collisions during the long hours of driving in the weekend, but I won't give you any details either. My mom's worrying heart won't be able to handle it... Once we arrived in Golden Bay, the coordinator for the horseback riding informed us that she wouldn't take us out on the beach because of the weather. After we had driven hours and risked our lives for that beach ride, we were pretty upset. So we went exploring on a few beaches by foot, then stopped at a chocolate shop and the Mussel Inn to eat our sorrows away.

Another stop we made was at the Pupu springs, supposedly home to the clearest water in the world. They had set up mirrors above the water so you could see all the way through into the bottom of the springs.

Once we got back to Nelson city, we took a hike up a very steep tall hill to the geographic centre of New Zealand, there was a large needle at the top pointing to the exact centre. The view of Nelson was spectacular.

On our way back to Dunedin the next day, we stopped at the Marina where Gayla's family keeps their sailboat. Originally from Canada, they decided they were ready for a change awhile back and so up and moved to New Zealand to sail around the Pacific Islands for 3 years. So adventurous!
The drive back was complete with crazy NZ weather. It rained, then it snowed, then it hailed, then it was extremely windy, then it was sunny.

Here is the snow from when we drove through Lewis Pass. It was rather scary, especially since my flatmate Arely (from Texas) who was driving at the time, informed us that she had never driven when it was snowing before...but she made a Minnesotan proud!
After about 11 hours (it took us longer the way back because of the snow) we were back in Dunedin. I'm not sure if I would take such a short trip with such a long drive again, but I really loved Nelson. The city has a certain charm about it.

Cheers!