the holiday begins... at last!

Well, it was goodbye to the White Elephant, Motueka and all things Abel Tasman... at least for a little while :) and we also got to celebrate our 6 month travelling anniversary with a brew and some fries in Hot Mama's cafe... mmm

So, the holiday began with us heading to Nelson to stay with our old muckers Gavin and Mags. We enjoyed the sun, the beaches and the ice cream... and when that all became too unbearable we nipped inside a cool cinema to watch Rocky Balboa... which for those of you who know me (M@) you will know how much I was looking forward to and dreading this release... anyhoo, it was amazing and we both came out teary eyed and agreeing it was a great finale to the series of films... and Sly is back... :)

The next big event for us was the Marlborough Wine Festival, which was a fantastic day and we really started to find out what we enjoy about wine... except for the drunken antics it leads too :) The weather held out and having parked ourselves with our first glass at about 10:00 am we didnt move until 6pm except to refill... which happened a lot! In fact, in some cases (MAGS!) far too many times.... it got messy :) But it was a top time!

And, it came to pass that we had to leave Nelson and head off into the big NZ on our own again... and so the journey began to meet my folks in Christchurch. We spent the first night in Kaikoura, which blew us away before finally getting to Christchurch and settling into a little spot near Hagley Park near the Botanical Gardens. And, we finally reached the most gypo point of our travels so far... we went to the swimming baths just so we could have a shower and avoid having to pay for a campsite- we are officially pikeys! And, we even managed to get a free phone charge up by standing in the supermarket pretending we were looking at flowers... when in fact there was a plug behind the stall that we were connected too :)

Anyhoo, the waiting for the arrival of the folks began (part I)...