Goin' South

After a lovely ferry ride, we are now on the South Island, safe and sound! Below is a picture of another ferry that was pretty similar to ours and some pictures of the Marlborough Sound region.

We spent a couple days in Nelson, a nice town in a beautiful part of the South Island, right on the Cook Strait. We arrived at sunset and were stunned by how beautiful it was.

Nelson is a major art community and we enjoyed checking out the local talent at the Saturday flea market. We also finally tried crayfish, an overpriced version of lobster. Unfortunately, rain limited further Nelson exploration but we enjoyed our time and may stop back.

For the next week we will be volunteering our time (about 4.5 hours daily with Sunday off) at a small farm in Takaka, Bay Subtropicals, in exchange for room and board. This is called WWOOFing (Willing Workers On Organic Farms) and is very popular in New Zealand (along with many other parts of the world). Bay Subtropicals is a lovely little operation run by a Canadian immigrant and we will be primarily doing tree maintenance in the orchard and working in the hydroponic garden.

We have big plans for the area, which is rich in adventure activities including climbing, kayaking, hiking and perhaps paragliding.