It's a New Year Downunder Happy 2008

Greetings everyone, and Happy New Year!
Jon and I are enjoying our first New Year's in shorts and sandals and enjoying the town of Nelson on the South Island of New Zealand. Let me catch you up with our travels since our last blog.
We left Napier on the North Island on December 26th. Reluctantly, we both hated to leave and Alan and Sally told us we could extend our stay for a bit, but we really wanted to spend some time in Wellington before crossing to the SI, so we set out for Wellington and FINALLY arrived there about 4 pm on the 26th. I say finally, because we left sun and fabulous scenery only to drive into very dark clouds just outside of W-ton. The wind began to howl, the rain came down in buckets and suddenly we were in hail (no doubt the snowball pitched at us from Terry and Cooky!). Fortunately, we found a nice motel on the advice of our new friend Mary Margaret and camped there for the evening. The next day we walked to the train station nearby and trained into W-ton and enjoyed the Te Papa (our house) museum. It had 6 floors of exhibits and so we spent almost the entire day there. We trained back to the motel and the next day repeated the trip into Wellington, but had very nice weather, so we decided to take the cable car to the top of the hill and then walked down into town via the botanical gardens. They were beautiful, and we couldn't get over the beauty of the trees and hydrangeas, begonias, roses and lilies. The morning of the 29th, we packed up and cued up for our crossing to the South Island. The ferry was huge, with decks large enough for semi trucks to turn around in. We packed our picnic lunch up to the deck and thoroughly enjoyed the 3 hr. trip with calm seas and sunshine. It was much like a ferry ride through the San Juans. The terrain is much the same, with less houses and people. We drove off the ferry at Picton at 6:03 pm on the 29th. Finally on ground we haven't covered before. We could immediately see the difference, as the mountains are high and many valleys. Very green also. Just off the ferry, we encountered a roundabout and a group of college guys sitting behind a large concrete wall with a sign that said "you toot, we drink". Well, we did and they did, all to great cheers from us and them! What a fun way to spend your summer day! We arrived in Nelson about 7:30 and found our rental without any problem. It is on the wharf and looks out onto one of the busiest beaches in Nelson. We are about 50 meters from the water (150ft.) We have been walking each morning and we were both struck by the similarity of the area to Alki in Seattle. Everyone here is so nice too. Tomorrow is the kick off of the jazz festival and we are trying to arrange a meeting between another email friend. It turns out she is the organizer of the jazz fest and we are looking forward to meeting her. Traveling is such a fun way to meet so many wonderful people. Today is Jan 1 and we decided to take in the Leonardo da Vinci exhibit at the local museum. It was excellent. So, now we are off to enjoy the sunny 80 weather. Blessings to all at the start of this New Year.

Jon and Joyce