James headed out this morning in his push to be in Nelson by Christmas Eve. I, feeling lazy and not wanting to ride in the rain, decided to take a day off in Westport. Tomorrow it should be back to warm and sunny weather so I figured I'd wait it out.

I didn't really do anything too productive today, though. I did go to a beer tasting at West Coast Brewery and drank more than I should have. I spent a while talking with one of the brewers and learned a lot about beer in New Zealand. Finally discovered that it's the tax that makes it expensive and unlikely to be a high ABV%. Tax, in general, is huge on beer but its also dependent on ABV% so a stronger beer is taxed more heavily.

After that I stumbled walked to the rather new theater in town to catch The Hobbit. I read the book early in my trip here so it seemed fitting to watch it while here. Was cool seeing familiar landscape on screen!