nearing the end of our time in nelson...

hello again! hope you all are enjoying your halloween festivities. halloween is theoretically celebrated here, but the pumpkins and ghosts and cobwebs are certainly not out in full force like they are in the states and, lacking a november thanksgiving holiday, new zealand has already moved on to their warm and sunny christmas season.

i've made an effort to bring the camera along with us this last week so that you all could see a bit of nelson...i hope you're appreciative, because i'm quite self-conscious about being the one standing on the sidewalk while traffic rushes by, snapping silly shots of the beach. for the most part, however, the pictures i have are of remote locations where i can slip the camera quickly into a pocket if there's any indication that someone else might appear in the vicinity.

these first few pictures are from tahunanui beach, downtown nelson's beachside counterpart just a half hour's walk over the hill from the hostel. the first is a statue of abel tasman, the first european to "discover" new zealand, with an attractive headpiece; the second is of two beautifully presented cups of coffee from esquires coffee, the main nz chain. the "arrivals" coupon magazine that can be found at nearly every hostel includes multiple two-for-one offers at this chain, so it's quite a nice (and nearly unlimited!) deal.

the short but steep walk to the beach is made especially beautiful by the lovely private gates along it, two of which are pictured here. colorful paua shells decorate the first; the second is just a standard garden gate that i found attractive. as you can imagine, there are some beautiful homes on the hill overlooking the beach.

this afternoon, convinced by the shorts weather and a cloudless blue sky, we got off our bums and went for a two-hour hike along the grampians walkway just east of the city. this should-be-easy-especially-without-a-pack trail thoroughly chastised us for having allowed ourselves so much chocolate these last few weeks and gave us our first good workout since early october. it also gave us another embarrassing lesson in routefinding. having arrived at an unmarked junction, we made a guess as to the trail's direction and wandered around with a small family of sheep for a while, eventually returning back at the "unmarked" spot to find a very clear sign ("to tawa track -->") nailed to a tree right in front of us.

these last photos are of our home ("the shed") at the bug, which some of you have expressed interest in seeing. while we're really quite fond of it (it's the secretive living space that my twelve-year-old self desperately wanted), it's really just a storage area with a homemade plywood bunk system making use of the top three feet. there are three good-sized bunks up on top with wooden dividers between them; we were able to slide our divider out to make a double unit for the two of us. the japanese guy who was staying in the shed with us, "tyler" if we heard him right, has recently moved out and has been replaced by julian from germany, who is very friendly if a bit slow with the mop.

in this last picture, i am proudly displaying the most delicious chocolate chip cookies ever made. i made four batches on two separate occasions and, being more than satisfied with how they turned out, requested that bryan burst forth in praise every four minutes for an indeterminate amount of time. it was sucessful for twelve minutes, with much prompting.

as you can see, we feel very at home here and are having a wonderful time on our new zealand adventure. we plan to move on sometime in the next ten to fourteen days, being excited to see more of the south island, but have been having the most restful time reading the paper each morning, biking to the grocery store, and perusing local bookstores. this second month has certainly been different from the first, and i'm sure the third will hold its own special vibe. miss you all!

-rachel