Nelson...without kids!

It was all about good food and wine - with a bit of great coffee thrown in too.

I've just spent a weekend in Nelson (at the top of the South Island) with a couple of my good girlfriends from Auckland. And boy, have I come home feeling relaxed and good!

Nelson's a really pretty place - I could easily live there. It's only a 25 minute flight from Wellington, and the topography is actually fairly similar - sea and mountains, with houses clinging to hilltops all around it. The city is smaller than Wellington but still big enough to offer enough for a weekend away, and it's surrounded by three beautiful national parks (not that we managed to get to any on this trip - but one day I will!).


I'm loving this tradition we've set in recent years: every summer the boys take a weekend away somewhere while the girls stay home with the kids, and then another weekend us girls take a weekend away somewhere while the boys stay at home (and make a mess) with the kids.

Just before Christmas, the boys went down to Queenstown and went tramping in the mountains for a few days - they stayed in huts and brought basic food supplies (and a box of wine as well I believe) and thoroughly enjoyed the great outdoors. It's a stunning part of the country, and I have to say I was a little jealous.

However, it's without a doubt that I can state this: us girls have got our formula 100% right for our weekends away. In a similar fashion to our 2012 trip, this year we booked a luxury bach with a large deck overlooking the ocean and an outdoor spa and indulged in 3 days of good food, good wine, good coffee, sunshine, sleeping, relaxing and sitting in the spa.

Of course I missed the family. But sometimes it's so lovely to be able to appreciate "grown up" things....being able to eat lunch at 4pm for example (no little tummies to worry about feeding every 3 hours), or being able to spend the entire afternoon sitting by the waterside drinking a bottle of wine and read magazines in peace, being able to sleep in past 8am, being able to take our time wandering around the beautiful Cathedral (without having to say "shhhh" once!), and being able to browse around beautiful gift shops full of ceramics and glass and other breakables.

Here's to many more years of the same holiday formula, Beth and Sam!