Thursday 14th July 2011 Nelson 5 days

Nelson is a very charming town with lots of dedicated cycle tracks.  Its very quiet and peaceful, with mountains surrounding the south, east and west, with the calm sea to the north.  The kiwis are polite and friendly.
We went for a walk up to the "Eye of of New Zealand" which is supposed to be geographically the central point of NZ.  It was quite a climb but the view was worth it.
Another good walk was up the Maitai Valley followiing the Maitai River (about 15km return).  The golf course we passed looked like it had just been vacumed.  There was not one leaf or speck of anything on the fairways.
We discovered that Nelson is also on a faultline and long overdue a major earthquake.