By the time we reached the South Island it was getting pretty late so we decided to stay just down the road in a carpark and be up and out in the morning.

It was my turn to drive that morning and like every time I took my turn I got the bad road. The views of the coast were amazing but the road up to Wharariki Beach which is at the top of the South Island was really hilly and really winding with loads of blind corners. Terry and I persevered though whilst Casson got more and more car sick. He tried to blame my driving but as it was so hilly we were only crawling round the corners so it couldn't have been that.

When we got there it was a bit grey and drizzly but we just got the waterproofs on and the umbrella out and set off for a walk on the beach. Even though the weather wasn't great, the coastline was really nice. There were a large group of seals and their pups in a rock pool, the pups were still covered in fur and they were racing in and out of the pool. Loads of people were quite close taking pictures but as I've said before seals do not like Casson. After everybody had moved on we started to take some pictures, Casson got as close as some of the other people and one of the larger seals got out of the water "oh look" he said "it's coming to say hello" Actually it came out of the water, started growling at us and then chased us off, I may have screamed and drawn attention to our chase! Groves & Casson 0: Nature about 20!

That evening we camped right near the beach and had a BBQ and campfire.

The following day we went for a walk round a natural spring, we passed a couple of bikers and then a little bit further on I found a bike key on the floor. We did our good deed for the day and waited for them to get back to the car park. No great hardship really, we got the deckchairs out, made a brew and had a slice of brownie. We love the flexibility of being in the van. After here we went to the rawhiti caves which were pretty impressive.

The next day we got a ferry to Abel Tasman National Park and hiked part of the coastal walk to a beach where the ferry was picking us up from. Luckily the weather had improved loads so it was a really sunny day and the views were amazing.

General points

1) NZ is pretty amazing with regards where you can camp overnight we've already had some amazing spots and hope it continues.

2) We're getting used to not showering for days on end