To the center of New Zealand

Well the weather was sunnier today but it was cool again with a high in the 60's so we decided to skip the beach. Instead, we drove back to Nelson and hung out in town all day. Before we left, we got one last view of the crazy tides in New Zealand. Check out the pictures before.

 

This is low tide which occurs in the evening this time of year. If you look closely you can see the little orange buoy in the middle-right.

This is the same area that was all sand in the previous picture.That little thing floating in the water was the same buoy in the other picture. And it wasn't that shallow, it was a few feet deep right up to the rocks.

After snapping the picture of the tide, we headed out of town and back to Nelson. We got lucky and checked into the hostel at 11 am. Since nothing else was going on, we headed next door to a fish and chips place for lunch. They let us pick out the type of fish to use for the meal. It was conveniently next to a store that sold fresh fish so you know it had to be fresh. Oh, and it was right on the water.

That's the place. Pretty non-descript.

This was right behind the fish and chips place. It's pretty safe to say that the fish was fresh. 

At this point it was noon and we had absolutely nothing to do for the rest of the day. We'd heard from a couple different people that the center of New Zealand was located somewhere in the city. We had no idea that it was at the top of a mountain that we had to climb. We didn't come prepared. We tried it in just our normal clothes but we got some good pictures.

Erin was putting in some good effort, even in those stylish glasses.

Kristin was dressed a little more appropriately but her face looks like she's in labor. It was a boy.

Cindy's arms were a little too short to reach the next area so Chase had to push her up. Turns out he really is a scholar and a gentleman.

And then Chase was watching out for everyone else. 

I wasn't very happy to have my picture being taken so I had to make a weird face.

Ok, all of that was a lie. We really just walked up the path to get to the top but we thought it'd make a better story if we climbed some huge mountain. And we got some good fake climbing pictures.

When we really did reach the top there was a plaque that marked the exact middle of New Zealand

This is the view from the center

I stood directly on the center

Then the girls stood in the center

A good view of the town and ocean from up here.

This is a picture they had at the top so that we could tell what we were looking at. You can see the part labeled "Marahau"-- that's where we were yesterday. I had no idea we could see that far across but it's pretty cool.

Then we walked around downtown Nelson some more. This is a cool area with some outdoor cafes.

This is the Christ Church Cathedral in the center of town with some nice flowers surrounding it.

Some more flowers outside of the church.

The inside looked like a typical church. I got in trouble for keeping my KU cap on. Oops.

They advertise with Uncle Sam here too!

The girls made dinner and Cindy made a great cake. 

So that was the big day. Tomorrow we fly to Auckland at 8 am and then meet with the rest of the group. We only have 2 days left here so we'll have to make the most out of them.