Christmas on the Beach!

Hi everyone!
Torti family: I know Ella was supposed to do this post and the next but we have to be checked out of our hostel soon so I'm gonna do it real quick. Don't you worry, she will write the best blog EVER next time :)
Ok so last time we wrote, we were in Hokitika. We successfully hitched to Nelson with an awesome artist who lives in London, Christian. He was able to fit all 3 of us in his car and it was awesome to meet him. We stopped by the Pancake Rocks which were amazing and had some ice cream along the way. When we got to Nelson we checked into a hostel called Accents on the Park which has been our home since we got here. Our first night at Accents, Ella gave me a little haircut and we had a great dinner. Since we got here we've been to the beach and spent a lot of time at the library.
For Christmas Eve Ella, Hugh and I went out for a nice dinner and it was delicious. After we had our amazing steak and potatoes we had a traditional New Zealand dessert called Pavlova. It's kind of like a meringue cake with fruit and whipped cream, very tasty. Yesterday was Christmas and we celebrated by making french toast and swapping jade that we bought for each other in Hokitika. Then Ella bought her plane ticket to Thailand (yeah girl!) and we spent the rest of the day on the beach with a box of wine. Not such a bad day but definitely a bad head ache this morning.
Today Ella and I are starting another 3 day, 3 night hike called the Abel Tasman Track. It's going to be 3 days of walking on white sand beaches and sleeping under the stars so it will be awesome. We have no real plans for new years yet but that's always kind of a disappointing holiday so we'll figure it out when it rolls around.
I got really homesick yesterday after talking to my family on Skype, it was awesome to see everyone though! I hope everyone's christmas was great and we love you!
xoxo lilly