Having had a bit of a late night, I dragged myself out of bed at 6am so I could force myself to finish packing. It was an arduous task. Very arduous indeed. I was rather worried about the weight allowance on the flight, so crammed as much as I possibly could into my hand luggage! After I had done that I just about had enough time to have a cup of tea before I checked out and jumped in my taxi to the airport.
I arrived at the tiny domestic departures terminal in good time and was somewhat intrigued by the bag drop system – you print out your own luggage tag and shove it on the revolving belt yourself, then that’s it, you’re done. Thankfully my bag was within the weight limit, although it occurred to me that no one was checking anyway. I then looked at the departures board and noticed that my flight to Nelson (South Island) was tagged as delayed, but only by ten minutes. I realised there was no security or separate departure lounge – it was all one room, so I sat down and listened to my ipod for a bit and then my flight was called. I gave the guy at the desk my boarding card and he let me through the gate. I followed the people around the corner and then down a ramp and outside... straight onto the runway where the plane was waiting! How bizarre!
I was somewhat stunned at this but I was more stunned at the plane. It was tiny and had propellers! I got on and found my seat – 8A, which was not far from the back; there were 12 rows in total! I looked at the card in the pocket and found out that it was a Bombardier 300 (or it might have been 3000), but quite clearly a very tiny plane! The take off was surprisingly smooth and I was incredibly brave and watched out of the window throughout – watching the propellers intensely to check they were going round properly! I am so glad that I did look at the views because they were rather beautiful. I watched the green fields disappear out of view as we went through some clouds and then they cleared and I could see the coast line, beaches and deep blue ocean below. It was far prettier from up here than it would have been from the ferry (and I was getting far less seasick!). I was really glad I had plumped to catch the bus up in this way and skip ahead to Nelson rather than meeting it in Wellington and getting the ferry over to the South Island.
The flight itself was surprisingly good. Seeing as it was just over one hour long, they even managed to serve us with a glass of water, then a cup of tea and a biscuit and lastly a boiled sweet! I whiled the time away by listening to my ipod and reading the inflight magazine, which included an article about the man who founded Stray, so that was interesting. Before I knew it, we were landing and again, I watched out of the window and saw the beauty of the sunny day and coastal towns below me.
The flight attendant told us to go into the terminal and our bags would be brought round. I disembarked the plane, again straight onto the decking and walked along the wall of the terminal before I found a door. I then faffed around, finding my passport, and was surprised that there was no one checking anything – of course; it’s a domestic flight! Well, the terminal itself was so quaint; literally a large hall with big windows and a random statue of a horse made from horseshoes. Lots of people were milling about and I couldn’t tell if they were waiting for people to arrive or whether they were waiting to board a plane. I couldn’t see any sign of the luggage or a luggage reclaim, then spotted a sign for the latter pointing in the same direction as taxis. I thought this a little odd, but went through the big glass door anyway, only to find myself outside the front of the terminal where my bag was just sat there waiting for me in the street! Amazing!
I hopped in a cab and headed to my hostel – Nelson Beach Hostel. I commented to the driver that I had heard on the weather forecast that it would be bad weather on the west coast, but that it seemed rather nice – he said that you never can tell at this time of year. Once at the hostel, I thought it seemed ok from the outside and found my way inside and upstairs to reception. After a few minutes of walking about and not seeing anyone, I was about to sit down in the incredibly kitsch lounge and wait, but then a guy appeared and I checked in. He showed me to my room and on the way I found a full appreciation of just how ever so kitsch and 70s the place was – random collectables and ornaments everywhere, heavily patterned, textured wallpaper, shag pile carpet and a general sense of being in a time bubble!
My room was a four bed dorm – all to myself! It had no mod-cons, but at least it seemed comfortable and the time-warp factor added a feeling of homeliness. The icing on the cake was when I found a sweet on my pillow! How lovely!
I decided that I would have a bit of an afternoon nap and woke up when the door opened and a different man came in – I think I scared him more than he scared me! It turned out he’s the man who actually runs the hostel and was coming in to make up one of the other beds. We had a chat and he suggested I go for a walk to the beach before the sun went down. I thought this sounded like an excellent idea, so made my way to the general direction of the seafront.
When I came to the beach, I was stunned. For some reason I had thought it would be a pretty naff and tiny, when in fact it was massive and beautiful. The tide was way out and that made for an even more picturesque view. I walked along the beach, feeling the sand between my toes and marvelling at the differences in the sand – from soft, dry, fluffy parts to heavily compacted, rippled sand. As the sun shone down, it bounced off the water and off the wet sand and looked even prettier. There were lots of other people out walking and enjoying the beach, including lots of people with their dogs. I saw some tiny little hermit crabs, lots of mussel shells and some small, empty crab heads (some seagulls had clearly had a snack!). Before I knew it, I had walked a really long way and I thought I should head back otherwise I might walk to a different town or something! I decided to go past the point at which I had joined the beach, just to look a little further along in the other direction, then went up to the road and began walking back to the hostel.
I hadn’t paid particular notice of the names of the roads on the way to the beach and I hadn’t brought a map, but I thought I had a fair idea of which direction I needed to go. I was slightly wrong and instead of going straight back to the hostel, I took a detour and made the ten minute walk take almost an hour. It was enjoyable nonetheless, plus I knew that Nelson isn’t exactly huge, so I figured I would always be able to ask if I couldn’t find it. Thankfully I did and all was good!
Having gotten back to the hostel later than I had intended, I then had the idea of going back out, but this time for a run. This was mostly because when I was walking back, the sun had begun going down and I thought it would be nice to see the sunset. Now that I had my running kit, I was keen to use it so decided to go for it! Before long I was heading out and went for a relatively short and really gentle run along the road that followed the beach and shoreline out of town. As I suspected, the sun was just setting and seeing the resultant colourful skies really made the beach look even more striking and the run more enjoyable. This time I didn’t get lost on my way running back to the hostel either, so that was a bonus!
By the time I arrived in my room it had just gone 6pm and I was at a loss of what to do. I decided that I was really cold so got into bed and just decided to have and early night and spend the rest of the evening relaxing but keeping warm! I whiled away the time by listening to music, clicking about on my computer and reading. I had thought I could get a wifi signal, but every time I tried to connect, the only network visible was that of the hotel next door, which was secured. So once again, I was thwarted by NZ’s relative lack of technological advancement! Oh well.
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