Friday, December 3, 2010

Nelson - Part 1

Well we got a little behind with the blog updates. We have been doing a variety of things since Milford Sound and the next few posts will fill in those gaps.

After our time in Milford Sound we spent the entire day driving to get to the town of Nelson (12 hours north with only a handful of stops-Ethan did amazing!). One of our stops was to see the Foxx Glacier which was very interesting (http://www.foxguides.co.nz/facts.asp). We stood in the valley where the glacier had been in the 1700's and we were able to walk almost right up to where it has since retreated.

We also drove through the small town of Greymouth where a mining accident occurred just a few days before where all 29 men died. It has been a major news story and tragedy accross New Zealand and we saw camaras and reporters set up covering the story.

We finally arrived in Nelson at the hostel (Almond House) where we stayed for 5 consecutive nights. It was SO nice to just be in one place for a bit. I don't think we realized quite how tired we were of staying one night, packing up in the morning, and heading on to another place, like we had for a week. The hostel was small and spacious, located on a residential street, only a short walk to the downtown. We relaxed in the backyard, took turns going for a morning jog along the river, went to the beach (beautiful!!!), and to the small zoo. Poor Ethan's gums were sore and he was waking several times a night. The walls are thin and with other people trying to sleep, I was mortified to see them in the morning. I thought we were going to get out. One night when it seemed to take forever to get Ethan to settle, Kevin took him to the car and they slept out there. As it turns out, I really don't think many people noticed. What seemed like a lot of crying to me, was likly only a few minutes. The lady who managed the hostel with her husband (also mother of small children) kept commenting on how great Ethan was doing. We finally started to relax a bit more and we really enjoyed not doing a whole lot.

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