Lets Begin

Wellington to Picton was the start of our journey south, although you can fly, I thought Annette should really get to experience the trip through the Marlborough Sounds on the InterIslander. We took the same pics that we have shown you on the blog before from our last trip down south so I won't repeat them but I thought this one was funny! I'd a little difficulty keeping the gruaige under control in the windy Cook Straits. We picked up a hire car upon arrival in Picton and began the windy scenic journey to Nelson. We'd nothing else planned for the day except to arrive in Nelson that day as we planned to tramp a section of the Abel Tasman National Park the next day. Dotted along the journey were various scenic lookouts - so naturally we stopped and took the obligatory photos.

We were both looking forward to arriving at our accomodation in Nelson. I'd found out about the apartment we were staying at through a brilliant book I bought here in NZ. I'm sure Cathal rues the day that I came across this book, it's proven costly for him. The Crafty Girls Road Trip is a book choc full with recommedations of where to find crafty stuff all around NZ. It even recommends crafty places to stay. So when I read that textile artist Jenny Barraud rented out stylish waterfront apartments in her restored villa I checked it out online. Villa10 did not disappoint. The lovely Jenny even recommended some fine places to eat in Nelson (we ate at one of them and I can't remember the name of it but it was 2 doors down from a fantastic shop called Fibre Spectrum - you can see where my priorities lie and why you'll be glad to welcome Cathal back to the blog once we get to the Christchurch review).

Here's the view from the apartment.

And the apartment itself. It was a lovely place to stay and a real treat at the start of our holiday. Jenny even stocked the fridge so we had a choice of breakfasts each morning - better than any apartment I have stayed in ever. Apart from the trek in the Abel Tasman which I'll cover in my next post we just had a few hours the following day to check out Nelson. We enjoyed a great lunch at Morrison St. Cafe and I had a great time checking out all the yarn sources here but you'll have to read the Clickety Knits Blog to find out about that. We flew that afternoon to Christchurch. At which point I'll pass the baton onto Cathal but not before I tell you all about the Abel Tasman.