Hello everyone,

The ferry that was taking us over to the south island was huge, it had two cinema rooms but all we wanted to do was sleep because it was still early morning so we found the quiet room that had reclining chairs and we all collapsed in there for the 3 hours it took to cross over to the south island. Me and Hayley had woke only to here a sleeping Louise shout out "STOP IT" at the top of her voice we looked at each other and burst out laughing along with the rest of the people who were amazed at her outburst because she was still asleep. We pretended she wasn't with us haha

Our first preview of south island weather wasn't the best; we were greeted by cold rain. The big green bus was there waiting for us to take us to Nelson where we would have a 2 night stop over at fern lodge. Nelson is the centre point in New Zealand, so when we arrived we had a free beer tasting session and then me and Lou headed up a mountain to stand under the "centre point of New Zealand" for sunset the walk was actually steeper than we thought but it was worth it; with 360° views over nelson and the surrounding mountains. That night we had to prepare our backpacks because we were off to Abel Tasman National park which is the most visited national park in New Zealand. We had signed up for a 4 hour hike, but this national park differs from the rest because this national park is located all along the coastline with white sandy beaches, crystal blue waters and seal colonies.

The weather was lovely and made for a great day. We had to get a boat to the start of the walk which took about 30 minutes. We all boarded this speed boat and us three took the back 3 seats and then karma reared its ugly face again, I thought we would have left karma back on the mainland but boy were we wrong......... the water was pretty wild and Hayley's sunglasses just flew off her head, one minute they were there and then the next they were gone haha but she was so lucky the glasses had flew off and landed in the trough behind the boat near the propeller.We passed the seal colony and got right up close, they were so camouflaged but were amazing to watch. We got dropped off on the beach and started our walk and the path just hugged the coastline most of the way, bringing us out at the odd sandy bay or two or three. We stopped halfway on this sand bar and had lunch and went to sleep in the sun for about an hour.

The waters were so blue and as we were carried on walking along the track in single file I hear a sudden skid, turned around only to find guess who...... HAYLEY!!!!.........on all fours, with a cloud of dust behind her haha i know what you thinking......... that was a big fart!!............big enough to blow her over haha just kidding, humour to one side she actually slipped on the gravel and took a nasty little fall but she was straight back on her feet and soldiered on but upon later inspection we realised that it was a nasty graze so we tried cleaning it with some antiseptic wipes but she didn't show any signs of pain if it was me I would of been crying. We came to the end of the walk in good time and we were red hot and the cold turquoise waters looked so appealing so as we descended onto the beach to wait for the water taxi to pick us up, I decided to jump in the water but we were sunbathing on top of a small sand bank and the only way to overcome the cold water was just to run in rather than tip toeing around.

I was psyching myself up; i had the blue water within my sights just 5 meters away, then i had the countdown from Hayley.........1,2,2 and a half, 3.................I didn't even flinch, I was starting to regret the decision of saying i would go in. But i couldn't back down now all the other lads had went in and i was last one to take the plunge. Hayley got the camera out and give me the count 1,2 and 3 i ran and jumped off the sand bank, i had quite a bit of speed behind me and landed perfectly and closed my eyes and clenched to prepare myself for the freezing cold water only to clip my bloody heels at the last hurdle and slowly so the water escape me and fell face first in the sand within crawling distance of the water i .......FAIL! Worst thing was Hayley got it all on video, so I sheepishly picked myself up and finished what i had started! IT WAS FREEZING but rather refreshing all the same. That night we watched back the video and had a good old chuckle at my expense, and got ready for another early departure for Westport. We didn't have any activities to look forward to in Westport because we were saving our money for the glacier walk and dolphin swimming.

Love Adam, Louise and Hayley xxx