Wow how time flies. I am now 5 days into my road trip of the New Zealand South Island. First part of the journey was taking a Ferry from Wellington to Picton. As I mentioned I am staying in Backpacker Hostels. They are like youth hostels which I have never stayed in. They offer differant kinds of accomendations like dorms of 4 or more per room. Dorms normaly have bunk beds. The beds in these rooms go for between $20-30. They also offer doubles twins and singles but they cost more. They have complete kitchen facilitities, including plates silvereware, pots and pans refrigerators/ frezzers etc. They also have TV rooms. Many of the places you share bathrooms with other rooms. The cliental are young Europeans. There are probably about 350 of them around Ne Zealand.. So the first two nights I got a 4 person dorm all to myself. (slow season)

Picton is a very nice small tourist town. I went to a couple of museums and a wine tour. There are 130 wineries in this area. We stopped at 4 wineries and tasted 5 wines or so at each winery. It was a great have day adventure.

I then took a train from Picton to Christchurch (4hrs). It is on the east coast of the south Island and is the second largest city in New Zealand.. I spent the night at a backpackers here and shared a 4 person dorm with 2 other guys. In Christchurch I visited the Cathedral. What an awesome building. It was built over a period of 40 years starting in 1864. I even went back for a service that night to listen to the organ, one of those with the large pipes and a all boys choir sang. Visited a museum and went to the casino and won!!!.

I then took a train 4.5hrs to Greymouth on the west coast. We went through the South Island Mountains. It was very beautiful scenery. Got off the train onto a bus that took me to Westport (2 hrs North). Here I stayed in a 6 person dorm that I shared with one other person. That night I cooked a porterhouse steak baked potato and brocli and a bottle of wine.

From Westport I took a bus to Nelson, about a 4 hour trip through some beautiful valleys, mountains and rivers. I would love to take a 3 day kyatt trip down one of these rivers but I also just want to get back to the boat.

Now I know that dreams do come true. Usually in these Backpackers they put guys and girls in different rooms. But in Nelson I had a 4 person dorm with 3 20-25 year old European girls. So I stayed here for two nights. Had a great time and did some hiking.

So today I took a bus back to Picton 2 hours and will take the Ferry to Wellington. I am looking forward to getting back to the boat.

The Adventure continues

Love Gary