Some time in Nelson and then back home

This is the last back blip from our trip to Nelson and the Abel Tasman.

We were showered changed, bags packed and stored and checked out of the hotel by 9:30 this morning, following which we walked to the Suter Gallery Café for a late breakfast.  Our friends joined us before leaving to meet up with friends of theirs who live in Nelson and with whom they are staying until Sunday. After breakfast we had another browse around the gallery, then went for a wander along the river in the sunshine.  It was a beautiful day, but cool.  We chatted to people along the way and visited the Information Centre to check whether there were any buses to the airport.  The answer was “no”, but we discovered we could get a bus to a stop reasonably close to the airport and then walk the rest of the way.  That seemed like a good plan.  We found somewhere to sit and relax with a coffee and the paper for half an hour, then collected our bags and set off on our journey to the airport.  We were there in good time and eventually boarded our plane for Auckland.  We had a smooth, quick flight back to Auckland, then caught a bus, a train and a bus home. We’d had a wonderful trip, but it was good to be back home.

The blip is of a sculpture we saw in the garden of a house by the river, and two mosaics on the ground in front of a restaurant near our hotel.

There  9,495 new community cases reported today. The seven-day rolling average of case numbers is 9,288 – last Wednesday it was 12,307. The number of people in hospital is 551, including 27 in ICU. Fifteen new deaths have been reported, bringing the total number of publicly reported deaths to 531.