OK, i have truly been a whingeing Pom. My last few posts were appalling. I left the glacier country a few days ago and spent 11 hours on a bus going to Nelson - plenty of time to scroll through my pictures and to think about where i have been and where i am going. It was a torrential rainy day for the whole drive but the rain brought snow with it and i got to enjoy the gorgeous sight of snow-dusted glaciers and mountains, and then a ferocious coastline. I also got to thinking of how ridiculously lucky i am to be here. Since then my rocky relationship with New Zealand has turned a corner and Kiwiland has really pulled out all the stops for me. My cheeks ache from grinning so much.

I spent my first day in Nelson mooching around and watching movies - you need days like that every now and then. My hostel is great - just a guy's home where there are always chestnuts roasting on the log fire and the tv is banned in favour of talking (gasp!). There are some great people staying here. I managed to rope 3 of them into paragliding yesterday and it was the BEST EXPERIENCE EVER! Thank goodness it didn't happen at Christchurch coz this was a much better experience. We launched froma massive height and had views over mountain ranges, over the town and the coast and beaches of the Abel Tasman. The pilot was so enthusiastic that we had good thermals as we were actually able to climb higher and do some sharp spins - i never laughed so loud, it was great fun. We were pretty lucky to have such great conditions. We completed our adventure day with a trip to the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour in the next town, full of crazy but inspiring footage. All in all a fantastic day with great company.

Today was almost as perfect. I headed out to the Abel Tasman park (most gorgeous coastline in the world) to do some walking. This place is paradise - the sun shone despite the forecast and i am still buzzing with energy and enthusiasm after a really active day. Nelson is certainly appealing as a really healthy place to live. The town is admittedly quiet, but that's because everyone is out in the moutains or on the coast all day, doing the huge myriad of activities available here.

Tomorrow i intend to head to Picton (i don't think i can bear to stay in a TV-less hostel and miss the tomorrow's episode of Desparate Housewives now that it has FINALLY caught up with when i left the UK!) to do some more walking and enjoy some wildlife, but i might be persuaded to stay on another day and do hangliding or maybe even a skydive if the weather forecast looks good.

Still grinning!