Trip around the South Island

Continuing on travelling around the top part of the South Island After escaping from Blenheim, the Doctor and I made our way to Nelson. We arrived late afternoon and after deciding on what Holiday Park to stay at (I prefer the ones with newly built cabins with modern conveniences and decor) we headed to the town centre to see some of the sights. Our first stop was a placed called Miyazu Gardens that were decided to Nelson's sister city in Japan. I guess we must have arrived at the wrong time because half of it was closed due to construction. However there was a reasonable part that we could walk around. One area we came across was dedicated to the Tao. Taosium I think was based on Chinese history but I am sure that Japan can lay their claim to it too. Anyway for those of you who don't know what the Tao is represented the every changing state of nature and each element is categorised. In the photos shown here, I am standing on the dot of darkness (Yin) in the total light (Yang), and the Doctor is standing on the dot of lightness (Yang) in total darkness (Yin).

Also in the gardens was a zen garden that we presumed was meant to represent the sea rather than a river. I'll let the photos do the explaining.






Our next stop in Nelson was to climb a small mountain to reach the Centre of New Zealand. When we arrived in Nelson, there were showers forecast and the held off until we got half way up the hill. However, we did persist with our climb and I'm glad that we did. So our photos show dark clouds and not so good views. This point is meant to represent the actual centre of the New Zealand landscape from the top of the North Island down to the bottom of the South Island.

The next day the sun shone and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. It allowed us to visit some of the other attractions in Nelson and they were the WOW (Wearable Art) Museum and Touch the Sea aquarium. The WOW museum was interesting and we spent a couple of hours there, but the aquarium was small and barely spent an hour there. I think it took us longer to drive there from the holiday park.

The following day, the Doctor was keen to do some kayaking in the sea but unfortunately the weather has turned again so we made our way to the West Coast to a town with a very original name (Westport).

Here we visited another seal colony but couldn't get as close as with Kaikoura. From Westport we headed down the West Coast and stopped at a place called Punakaiki (try saying that three times really fast).

This small little gathering (it literally has a information office and two cafes) is where some blow holes and rock formations that look like a stack of pancakes. Hopefully the pictures will tell show you what I mean.


After that stop, we headed back to Christchurch and will spend the rest of our time here before departing on Wednesday.

Till then, haveagoodone...