Nelson - Part 2

The weekend came and with it the famous Nelson Saturday Market which I visited with Aunt Sarah and Granny. There were many nice stands with local crafts and alternative fashion and I can't resist buying a copper ring made of an old New Zealand coin. We also had a look at the ringmaker Jens Hansen and a street with very old New Zealand houses before I left at 11 am for Takaka.

A nice stop on the way were the Waikoropupu Springs that are sacred to the Maori. Apparently this is the clearest water in the region.

At 1.30 pm I arrived at Hack 'n Stay where I helped Bärbel (of course there were only Germans...) brush and saddle the horses. Together with another girl we would go horse riding on the Rangihaeata Beach. I had always wanted to ride by the sea and was really looking forward to this experience! My horse was a beautiful grey named Redwing and she was very easy to handle. For four hours we rode up and down awefully muddy slopes and through the retreating sea. On our way we saw an awefully thin baby seal but the Departement of Conservation wouldn't do anything about it.
When I got back in the evening I hurt all over and was quite exhausted but I had had a wonderful day and I wouldn't have missed it for anything!

The next day the whole family went out to the movies to see "Swallows and Amazons", a children's story that apparently is quite popular in New Zealand. Afterwards the Mathesons prepared their boat and we went out on the waters. It was a nice sunny day but we could only spend about an hour on the boat itself for preparing it and cleaning it afterwards took such a long time!

By now cat Pippin trusted me enough to occupy half of my bed but I didn't mind.  The next day I started off on a hike up the Whispering Falls but even before I reached them there was a river crossing with no bridge and after wading in up to my knees I decided to turn around. Instead I hiked up to Hacket Hut and as soon as I reached it it started raining. Heavily and continuously. For an hour I still hoped it would stop but because I didn't really want to stay there over night with the family worrying about me I had to make my way down again. The water level had already risen quite dramatically and the path was flooded more than once. I was glad that I had a staff to help me with the crossings. It was quite a dangerous situation and reminded me of how quickly the weather can change here and that you should always be careful.

On my way there...

...and on my way back, only 2 hours later.

That had been my last day in the Nelson region for on Tuesday I continued to Christchurch, my New Zealand hometown. Again it was a lovely warm day and Lewis Pass was just beautiful. I had lunch at an Alpine walk before I finally arrived in Christchurch about 7 hours later.