New Zealand has great wines

I made it to Nelson on the South Island and I'm alive. I don't know if you (Mom) or Kelley were more worried that I could actually survive on my own in a foreign land. What would have happened if I went to Tunisia?

The flight was only an hour but they didn't take us through the metal detector or x-ray our carry-on luggage. Apparently they don't think that anyone will bomb the plane while in it, atleast going to Nelson I guess.

My first impression of the South Island is that it is absolutely stunning, if you could cram all the wonderful landscapes of Canada into a tiny country it would look very similar. While in Fiji I had asked several people what they recommended in New Zealand and universally they said it didn't matter where you went because it was all beautiful and I would agree.

Nelson is a very small. I find some of the New Zealand towns very odd in that their sole purpose is to support the tourism industry. Without transient backpackers coming through the towns likely wouldn't exist. It's just an eerie feeling when they look at you in the grocery store like they're happy to have you but you're also a pain in their ass. There must be a good analogy there of something that you need to have but it's a pain. I'll keep thinking.



My hostel Accents on the Park.



The shuttle bus driver told me that I had picked the best hostel and he was right. It was extremely clean and the people were very nice. It is relatively low-key because most people are getting ready to leave the next morning or go to Abel Tasman to kayak or hike. I had a really quiet night, I didn't have the energy to be friendly and meet lots of people so once I settled in I went to bed. However, I came to learn that most people at this hostel are often in bed at 10 or 11pm. Nelson isn't exactly a party city.






The main tourist street in Nelson, very nice but the service is terrible. The first night I had a pint and waited over half an hour for the waitress to come back and ask if I wanted another. Finally I went to the bar and paid. The second night I was at a pub and waited over an hour for dinner, after everyone at the table had already eaten, they forgot to put my order through even though they kept saying it would be there shortly. Maybe they should work for tips.

I hadn't been to any vineyards and Kelley was quite disappointed so I thought I would do a tour. It was cheaper than Abel Tasman and I knew I could kayak elsewhere. Also, it was a lovely afternoon to consume a bottle of wine.

Before we get to the drinking I should try to recall the things I learned:
1) 90% of New Zealand's plants/trees are not native. You see a lot of oak and pine from North America.
2) 95% of New Zealand's trees are evergreen so they don't experience fall like we would.
3) New Zealand also introduced a lot of animals to the country which wreaked havoc. The most notorious is the oppossum which they brought over for the fur trade which subsequently went belly up. Unfortunately there is no natural predator so they eat all the kiwi bird eggs, destroy the forests and New Zealand declared war (well they did 50 years ago) and are trying to kill them off - I should actually credit that factoid to Jacob who told me on the way back from Gisborne.

Okay back to the wine:

The tour was mostly couples but there were several solo women and one man from Chile. It's funny how women seem to come together when traveling alone, you become friends immediately and you're always asked out to dinner or to events because people know you have no one else to go out with. In fact, in some ways I think it's better than travelling with someone because you meet so many people. Whereas if you see a couple you just assume they want to do things on their own.

So I spent most of the day drinking wine, eating bread and antipasto with a girl from England, another from Scotland and two women from Ontario and Ireland. They had quite a few wines that I knew I liked. They also had the German 'box o wine' that we have at Christmas.


The wines were okay, some better than others but I discovered a new food item called Dukkah, when you dip your bread in olive oil you then dip it into this mix which is I think grated nuts and spices. I bought some and plan to figure out how to make it myself.

After a tour to 5 vineyards in the summer heat we headed back home. I had a nap and then met the women from the tour for dinner at a local pub.