Abel Tasman

We arrived at our campsite after a treacherous drive on an 11km gravel track through the darkness in the forest. It didn't help seeing an abandoned car driven off the edge of the cliff in a bush. We were greeted by a couple who were camping in a tent, and we set up camp for the night, heated our pre-cooked chilli, had a cup of tea and made hot water bottles for bed. The rain when we woke up was absolutely terrible, and we later found out that it was forecast to have been hit in the area days ago, so it was going to be a bad day, especially for walking. We soon decided against the walk in Abel Tasman and after struggling to make porridge and tea under the trees, with our gas flame being burnt out every five seconds, we slowly headed to a village called Motueka. We decided we'd attempt the walk the following day as the weather was forecast to stop raining. We found a site where we were able to park up and use the facilities for $12.50 and I spent the afternoon having lots of chats with Jenny, drinking tea whilst watching the rain crash down outside. We cooked sausage curry (enough for the following day too) and at 8.15pm we went to the small local cinema where we watched 'Gravity' in 3D. It was a good film, but obviously very unrealistic. We didn't really know what to expect!

We woke bright and early. The heavy rain had stopped and although it was overcast, it looked better than the previous day. We drove to Marahau and got a Water Taxi to Torrent Bay. Along the way we passed Split Apple Rock, a big apple shaped granite rock split in two. We walked 5 hours along the coastline back to our Jucy camper. It was a really nice walk and although it wasn't sunny, we got quite warm walking- at least it wasn't raining!

When we arrived back at the Jucy we were knackered, so we decided to stop off at the supermarket on route to Picton and pick up some cheap chocolate and marshmallows for our 2hr journey. We arrived at out campsite, set up camp for the night by a lovely lake. I think we were quite hyper and giggly from all the chocolate so we had a right laugh all evening.

Once we arrived in Picton to board the Interislander ferry over to North Island, we were told our ferry was cancelled due to the bad weather yesterday, so we were transferred to the next ferry at 1pm. We tried to find some wifi in the meantime. The views on the ferry are really pretty through Marlborough Sound, and it was really good the skies were clear blue today. Although it was a bit bumpy on parts of the journey, we're now in Wellington!