Nelson

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Had to be up and ready early in order to get early ferry from Wellington to Picton, was lucky that very nearly overslept but thankfully girls in my dorm were also going and woke me up so was very grateful as missing ferry would have been bit disastrous! Was feeling really shattered so slept for fair bit of the time which was bit of shame as beautiful crossing past the Queen Charlotte Sounds. I did go out on the deck for a while which was nice as had great views and was really beautiful in the sunshine! When arrived in Piction found the coach and then we were driven through to the Nelson region where did some wine tasting which was fun as well as having some lunch at the Vineyard  there afterwards. We arrived into Nelson itself in mid afternoon and was still really sunny so I was able to have a walk around in the sunshine! After having a look at the town and cathedral we went on a walk up to somewhere called the 'Centre of New Zealand' which is a look out point with great ocean views & has been measured as the geographical centre of New Zealand. It was a really nice walk, down past river and through the botanical gardens although the end was quite challenging as it was at the top of a very steep hill but the views made it worth the effort! I had hoped to catch up with Shane from the Contiki tour as he lives in Nelson but didn't end up going out in the end as everyone was really tired so ended up having quiet night. just having few drinks in pub were staying at and watching bit of New zealand rugby league game on the TV. In hindsight it would have been good to have longer in the Nelson area as would have liked to have time to explore the Abel Tasman National Park as that's meant to be really good. Really liked Nelson, although we didn't have that long there it was nice to see the city and as its really not very big we were able to see most of it in the time we had. All in all liked Nelson although couldn't believe how quiet and peaceful it was!