NZ: day 8

Well, day 8 has been mostly a travel day. We had to hop on the bus at 7:15am to catch a ferry to take us from the north island to the south island.

It took about 3-4 hours to get across to Picton. We left the bus on the north side, so now we're in a new bus.

We drove for about an hour to a small town for wine tasting. We sampled to whites but I didn't like them. I've grown partial to reds. They were selling the wines at a discount,.so jamie bought one for her brother.

We had a good lunch here. A smoked turkey, cranberry, and gouda (or some other fancy cheese) panini with a small salad and a slice of banofee served with caramel sauce, sliced banana, and whipped cream. It's hard to describe the flavor, but it was fantastic.

We drove for a few more hours and ended up in nelson. Accomodation was weird here. We didn't stay in a normal hostel, but in someone's house. I guess you really can't knock the hustle.

It's saturday night around 7pm and most of the shops are closed. Very different shopping culture than the US. The downtown area was pretty nice for a small town. There must have been about 80 or more stores which is heaps more than I've seen in other towns.

We did manage to find a place to eat. I got some hot thai food, and jamie just went to the grocery store to get some yogurt. She was still full from our great lunch.

We got back to the house and watched a bit of the tele for only the second time of our trip. We ended up watching The Rock's movie "walking tall" and it wasn't bad the second time around. During the movie, the other two couples that were in the house with us headed out for the night to find some bars.

We turned in at about 10 to get some sleep before our 8am departure.