Nelson

I rode the 110 km from Picton to Nelson yesterday. The first 35 km were pretty easy and I had some good company for most of it, as I rode alongside my French mate Sebastian, who I met in Picton. Seb and I were staying at the same hostel (or rather “backpackers, " as they tend to be called here), and, after chatting for a while, we realized that we had both worked at the same blueberry farm in Kerikeri. Small world, huh?

Seb is one of those super adventurous types who has decided to cycle around New Zealand even though he's not much of a cyclist and even though he's never undertaken such a journey. He is without a doubt carrying way too much stuff, including a laptop, a road atlas, and a book of some sort, to name a bit, but his amazingly relaxed attitude makes up for his weight disadvantage. Nothing seems to phase the guy and he's in no hurry to get anywhere. He's just about the epitome of carpe diem and I hope to learn from him. I consider myself to be a pretty laid-back person, but Seb puts me to shame. We're not staying at the same place here in Nelson, but we have met up a couple times already (once by chance) and might go hiking together in Abel Tasman National Park tomorrow. After that, we'll part ways, but maybe we'll meet again in France or somewhere else.

The rest of the ride here was much tougher after I took off from Havelock by myself (I can ride about 10 km/hr faster than Seb), since there was a lot more traffic to worry about and because about 30 km from Nelson there was a substantial climb to overcome.

Once here I decided I'd almost definitely stay for at least two nights rather than one, and now I think I will actually be here a third night. Today I'm just relaxing (farmer's market, Queen's Gardens, hiking, beach?), and tomorrow I plan to go by bus and water taxi to Abel Tasman.

I'm not so wild about paying to be transported to and in the park, but it's a much better option than doing a time-consuming bike ride to the park (it's about 50-60 km one way) and paying to stay at a hostel near the park entrance. I'm going for the day trip option, though, rather than, say, camping for two or three nights, since I just don't have the proper gear for a longer stay.

Besides, I only have about one month left in NZ, and there's a lot more of the country that I want to see, so I think it's better to not stay in any one place for too long.

With that thought in mind, I sometimes think I shouldn't have spent so much time up north, but there's no sense fretting about that.

Indeed, the only way for me to see a lot more of what this beautiful country has to offer is to stay here for much more than the three months I'm limited to at any one go, so I either have to figure out how to get a longer visa or come back some other time. That's simply one of the dilemmas you often encounter while traveling...

By the way, I finally had my right pinky X-rayed (from when I had my little accident back on January 12 and it turns out that my finger really is broken (there are at least two tiny cracks), which would explain why my pinky is still swollen. I'm hoping that in another two weeks the digit will look more normal, but the doc said I might have to live with a (slightly) fat finger. This is not the first time I've broken a finger (I've broken three others), but this is the first time I've broken a finger and was convinced that it was just badly sprained... That shows you what I know.