days 11 & 12 - to Nelson and HOME

We started the day with another fantastic view - this time of Mt Cook from the western side (compared to our view the previous week from Central Otago).

After a nice breaky we hit the road, today we wanted to get to Nelson, and I wanted to get there ASAP to see my family! (I'm sure Simon winced as I explained this to him - yet another day of me being a timing nazi)

As we travelled up the West Coast we saw plenty of one of the things it's famous for - Nikau Palms. These are the only native palm in NZ and the southern most growing palm in the world... ooOOoooo

They are also very cool and sculptural!

The Pancake Rocks at Punakaiki were very... pancakey... what a surprise! Nice to look at but the place was crawling with tourists of all shapes, sizes and volumes, and I really wasn't in the mood for them :P

Further north on the Buller River we had a wander across the longest swing bridge in NZ... It was quite long I guess, but I don't see why that means we had to pay $10 to go over it... Can you tell I was becoming a bit bitter and ready to go home?!?!

Nelson!! Once we arrived we went down to Tahuna beach with Mum and the boys. It was a beautiful day there, and it was nice to have a relaxing stroll as the sun went down :) Ahhhhhh

Shadows of Si, Mum and myself

Back at Mum's place we kept watching the sun go down and she made us dinner - a very nice shepherds pie :) I started to become quite excited about the fact that the same time tomorrow I'd be home with Fenn, I was certainly ready to see my wee puppy again!


The sun going down across the bay

The last day! Sometimes the last day of your holiday is a sad day, but this time I was ready to head home. The holiday had been amazing don't get me wrong, but the sort of holiday which involves lots of travelling (like my trip to the UK last Oct) does get VERY tiring, and I was tired!

That morning we had breakfast at The Boat Shed, went visiting my old flattie Michelle quickly, and spent another few hours with Mum and the boys before we headed back to Picton to catch our boat.

Family pic

We hit the road with plenty of time to get to Picton, but I'm sure you can imagine how pissed off I was when a cop stopped me as we were about to leave Nelson... He started giving my car a once over, and without properly reading my drivers licence assumed I was on my learners... (my licence is learners bike and full car, it says that on the bottom and surely it would make sense for police to learn to read it properly before they start being dicks?!)

Anyway, I REALLY wasn't in the mood (boat to catch and generally tired) and was probably quite abrupt in the way I told him "If you read it properly you'll see I've got a learner bike and full car". He had to go back to his car, I assume to check in his book 'Policing for Dicks 101' and realise that I was actually right, before letting me go... such a nice guy...

The rest of the drive back was pretty uneventful, I just feel sorry for Simon having to listen to me rant about the stupid cop for the next half an hour... but at least now you can all share his pain!

We got home at about 10.30, gave Fenn lots of hugs, and crashed.

WOW that was an intense holiday!!