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Here's a view of the Tramper's Rest in Nelson. It's the house in the very centre of the picture. As I said in the previous section, this was one of the two best hostels we stayed in. A couple of pictures on the way to get breakfast. Here we are at our breakfast joint. A nice, big, hearty breakfast for NZ$8.50. That's about US$4. I felt this place had a definite San Francisco feel, which led Fenny to guess that there were a lot of places in the world with a San Francisco feel, and a guess that probably that "San Francisco Feel" comes from Europe somewhere. It probably does. Actually, these breakfasts averaged at about NZ$9 per meal, which is closer to US$4.25. I'd already eaten my ham (which they call bacon here) when I took this picture. There appears to be nothing like American-style bacon in New Zealand. What they call bacon I would call pieces of ham. Or maybe, just maybe I'd call it Canadian bacon. Here is a praying mantis they had in their fireplace. And here was a scorpion that appeared to be guarding their cash register. Two bored dogs waiting outside. Did I yet mention that San Francisco feel? Here are some pictures to give you a general feel for Nelson which, like I said, has a San Francisco feel. Lay off the comparisons to San Francisco already? Naw. It's too true. Views of a Thai masseuse. Here was a marketplace set up in the parking lot of a grocery store (or, as the Kiwis would say, a car park of a supermarket...) This had a particularly... OAKLAND feel to it! I remember fondly my days living in Oakland, where we would go to trashy little flea markets run by illegal Mexican immigrants. Those were cool. Then, on the way to the Centre of New Zealand (aka, the centre of the civilised world) we stopped in at Queens Garden (right, without an apostrophe). Here are some pictures. There were ducks, and everything. The magic disappearing couple. Actually, the picniccing couple are in both pictures, just the bush hides them in the second exposure. It's one of those framing tricks you play when you're a photographer. I'm exposing you to an unreal alternate universe. Like Jet Li! The point of this picture? Probably hard to tell if you don't look at the fullsize picture. It started to RAIN! But Nelson, unlike Fox Glacier, had about 30 minutes of semi-hard rain. Fox Glacier had about two days of torrential downpour. Here, the most beautiful woman in the world waits patiently for the rain to stop so we can continue our journies. Or is that journeys...? ...and it rained and rained and rained. But then... It stopped! So off we go... ...toward the centre of New Zealand! The things that led us to the Centre of the Civilised World seemed innocuous enough. Nothing showy or grand on the way. I'm guessing this is so that when we reached the Centre of the Civilised World, that it wouldn't be a big let down. Because, let's face it, the geographic center of most things is rarely where all the action is at. Unless you're looking for tourists. ...approaching the Centre of the Civilised World... Just for YOU, I've photodocumented the ascent of the hill that houses the Centre of New Zealand. The view was good. We met up with other travellers who wondered if we were going to the centre of New Zealand and wondered if they could follow us. Which was rather scary since just minutes before, we'd also asked other tourists if we could follow them to get to the Centre of New Zealand. As it turns out, the path to the Centre of New Zealand is actually rather poorly marked. I THINK that we were to follow what was called the "Main Track," as opposed to any of about thirty other tracks to the top. At the Centre of New Zealand, the aliens had erected some sort of subspace transmitter antenna. Notice the plaque, clearly indicating that this is, indeed an alien-planted subspace transmitter antenna. See? It says "signal." What else could it possibly mean? Fenny marvels at the possibility of communicating with life at the centre of our galaxy. Fenny thinks carefully about the ramifications. Here is a plaque left us by the aliens. More proof. It shows things that we couldn't possibly know, like where the unspeakable Christchurch is. These pictures are a 360 degree view of the view from the Centre of New Zealand. Someday I might see if I can somehow turn them into one big picture. Fenny communicates with the civilisations at the centre of our galaxy and concludes... ...the meaning of life is dance! Fenny was quite cute for a very short amount of time, and I had to take as many pictures as I could before she got all sober and introspective and wouldn't do anything interesting anymore. I've got this little theory that Fenny will try to make any picture I take of her an ugly picture. She tries hard to be making an ugly face or have her eyes closed. Then we headed back into Nelson to take pictures of the church. You know, for a guy that despises Christianity and all it stands for, I sure like their architecture. Then I took a bazillion pictures of a cool tower! There were leaves, and a blue sky, and everything. More views of Nelson. Nothing too much happened. That's why these pictures are kind'f dull. Here are views of the Tramper's Rest. Again I'll say this was one of the two best hostels we stayed at the entire time we were in New Zealand. It and Criterion in Napier share the title of best two. |
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