The Palace Backpackers

From Top to Bottom: (1) Dan asleep in our room,
(2) The boys leaving the Palace our last morning,
(3) The porch on the side of our room,
(4) Our balcony,
(5) The walkway up to our balcony from the driveway.

The Birthday Weekend Photo Post

Carrie: "Hey I'm changing into jeans over here."

Tim: "Daniel we couldn't get you a stripper for your birthday so we got Carrie to take her pants off. Happy Birthday."

From Top to Bottom: (1) The Palace!,

(2) The magical playground where everyone falls off,

(3) Will spinning Tim off,

(4) Mike on the Flying Fox,

(5) The crazy tire claw,

(6) The view from our balcony at The Palace,

(7) Me on the beach,

(8) The group with Cindy,

(9) Tim and Dan like to dive when playing volleyball,

(10) Sand volleyball on the perfect day,

(11) Mike on the beach outside Nelson.

Nelson: The Birthday Weekend

We arrived in Nelson at the Palace Backpackers two days before Daniel's birthday on January 17th and it became a true Birthday Weekend as we celebrated for three excellent days. The excuse for the absurd amount of food, juice (me), and alcohol (boys) consumed was that "Heeeey it's your birthday!"

We slept in the morning of the 16th and Tim and I ran birthday errands before we headed out to the beach for lunch and a great afternoon. We purchased a Boogie Board and a Skim Board (which is a heavier wooden board that skims along the waters surface as the waves roll in and out on the beach) to use and I definitely wiped out wicked hard on the Skim Board. I hit the sand so hard I was bleeding. We enjoyed the warm waters, beautiful mountains and weather, and a great time playing volleyball. We were joined by our new French friend Cindy who was great to add to our dynamic.

After our beach day we spent time in the hostel's hot tub and decided to stay another day for Dan's birthday! We cooked a HUGE meal with Cindy: pasta, red sauce, cheese, soy sauce veggies, garlic bread, and a big salad. We stayed up late chatting and playing cards which we became addicted to.

We woke up very late on the 17th and I made Dan breakfast for his birthday as he checked his facebook for well wishes. We left mid-afternoon to go to Richmond (the next town over) to visit the cutest cooking store: Baku! The women working there, Lyn and Linda, made us tea and chatted with us for over an hour. We bought presents and we headed back to Nelson to finally have a picnic lunch at 5:30pm. We also had fun playing on this tire swing claw contraption - wait for photos on that. It was hilarious.

We picked up some other people from the hostel to come play a game of volleyball with us: we were joined by Will from Britain, Danielle from Jersey (a British Isle), and Charles from Sweden. The game was awesome -- Danielle, Charles, Tim, and I triumphed 2 games to 1 over Mike, Will, and Dan. We played on the most amazing playground post-game: there were zip lines and spinning swings and tire claws!

We had a repeat of our meal the night before and shared cake and ice cream with our new friends as we played card games and finally fell asleep exhausted.

When we woke in the morning it was raining and we decided once again to stay at the Palace and avoid camping in the rain. We had a lazy internet, laundry, napping, errand day and had a fantastic dinner of stir fry and rice. We played card games with Charles, Will, Danielle, Cindy, and a few others that wandered in and wanted to join in our silent game of Spoons. It was a fantastic night and a great ending to the Birthday Weekend.

The South Island: Camping to Nelson

From Top to Bottom: (1) Catholic Church in Nelson,

(2) Sunset!,

(3) Mike napping in Nelson,

(4) Anglican Church in Nelson,

(5) Bridal party entertaining us during lunch,

(6) Lunch in the trees,

(7) The road to our campsite,

(8) Crystal clear stream,

(9) Our campsite our first night on the South Island.

Nelson

"Ca vaut le coup" (French) = "It is difficult but so beautiful it's worth it."

We arrived mid-day in Nelson to find the Saturday produce and craft market just closing up for the day. We bought tons of fruits and veggies and a couple bracelets before having a picnic on a hill by the Cathedral. There was a great climbing tree right next to us and a bridal party came by to take photos as we ate our lunch. We each took turns napping, exploring the Church, and also wandering back into the shopping area for bathrooms.

Nelson is so charming: it's in the sunniest place in the country and has a great relaxed beach town feel to it. It's larger than most of the South Island cities but never actually felt like a large town.

Around 5pm we headed to our hostel: The Palace Backpackers (http://www.thepalace.co.nz).

It was recommended to me by my friend Aliza Brinton who traveled through New Zealand for three months just before we arrived ourselves. The Palace was SO incredible we stayed for four days - we couldn't pull ourselves away! It was this great villa on a hill overlooking the city: it's possible the best hostel I've ever stayed at - it's only competition is Sir Toby's in Prague (http://www.sirtobys.com). We had our own private room with a huge window that we could climb in and out of onto the wrap around porch on the second floor. The whole hostel had huge ceilings and chandeliers and books in every language and a spa and DVD room and the best kitchen ever.

After we dropped our stuff we ran to Church at 6pm: I was really interested to see what Catholics in New Zealand would be like. They stare just like they do in the US, don't worry. They did change a lot of the words and some of the prayers, but provided these projection screens so you knew what to say next. It was interesting.

We made an epic meal that night: Crepes! Filling options: apple, bananas, strawberries, plums, blueberries, blackberries, cheese, honey, peanut butter, peppers, cucumbers, tomato, brown sugar, butter, mayo, and a hot fruit butter/sugar mix that we made. I think I gained 10 pounds. Tim spent time trying to explain "That's what she said" to our new French friend Cindy. It was probably the funniest thing I watched unfold in a really long time. I took a long hot shower after dinner and fell asleep in a comfortable warm bed.