A Small amount of Nelson, and then Golden Bay

Right, so as I said I'd tell you last time, Nelson!  (Might be worth getting a tea again for this one).

 So I got off the stray bus again, this time in Nelson where I stayed for a couple of days in the Palace backpackers. You can never starve here. Free Breakfast or cereals and breads, and at half 4 the delivery of the leftovers of  a bakery, however large or little that was. Never seemed to be enough though.... Morwen (another Aber connection) is working for accommodation at this hostel, so was nice to catch up as well.

 So what did I do? Relaxed things! It was nice to have a few days where I didn't have a busy schedule of getting around the country, and the hostel seemed to be full of  people doing the same; taking their time and enjoying slowly moving around New Zealand. Also they enjoyed the free food too.
   
  Now, I haven't been to the northen tip of the country, and I won't be getting to the southern end either. But I can proudly say I've been to;

 
Yeah, accomplishment. Well, a ten minute stoll up a hill really. Good views though;

 Nelson is a nice little place. Vibrant arts and music scene which is always good, and just a very good atmosphere. They also like to go to the beach here,  I'm not sure why.

There was also some Poker played, and a few general evenings in at the hostel. Excellent few days.

So over here, alot of places in the South Island are run on the work of volunteers, in exchange for accomodation and sometimes food (if you don't want to cook for yourself!) It's not suprising, as the country has 4.5 million people, and just under a million on the South Island. So stuff like fruit picking, gardening, cleaning hostels is pretty common and relatively easy to find. So of course I had a last minute panick!
 I was supposed to be going to a hostel in a little town in Golden Bay called Takaka, but when I called him up a week before it had  kind of fallen through. Great. No massive panick though, it didn't take me long to find another place, and I'm glad I did, as I went to Shambhala. Literally.

 Shambhala is an eco/buddhist backpackers right in the middle of Golden Bay:

About where the Red Circle is

There was literally nothing around, which was amazing. Private beach, beautiful garden (some parts even more beautiful after I left), and just so peaceful. My head did struggle though, with the journey that started three weeks ago or so in a city with 1.5 million people to here, with three others.
 My jobs included weeding, digging some of the base for a new Greenhouse, remaking a compost heap that had gone wild, and a couple of other bits and bobs. Work for two and a half hours in the morning, and then chill out!
 Now I can hear some crys of concern that I went to a hippy buddhist place...but no worries, I've not renounced all my wealth (ha!), this is still my laptop I'm typing on, and I still have my hair (if you haven't seen me with a bald head be grateful). I did join in with some of the guided meditation sessions though which was really interesting, and I'd recommend it to anyone if you get the chance (I'm on Karmic commission now...)
   It might sound boring, but for the most part, this week was about utter relaxation. Talking with the other two woofers, playing the odd game of chess, walking the beach searching for cool little shells, baking. It felt like heaven though. On Saturday and Sunday night we did walk the couple of ks to the highway though to go to the pub there called the Mussel Inn  (Yes they do Mussels, and yes they're great), and I hitched into town a  couple  of times.
 Hitching over here (at least in Golden Bay) is very easy and  absolutely fine (still got my Kidneys!).  Met some really interesting people doing it, including a digereedoo carver. They even have little designated hitching posts around  for people to wait at. So, photos of Shambhala:

The view I woke up to every morning

The main part of the backpackers

Teahouse on the left which had a little gas stove and cups

There are some photos of inside too, but they're on my camera, still need to upload them.

 And yes, as you can see by the constant blue sky in photos, I have more freckles and the farmer's tan in coming on nicely. Starting to think the beard was a mistake. Don't hate me too much!