Saturday 14th November Abel Tasman National Park - The North coast. Beautiful red sky at dawn today (Uh-oh). Luckily we were parked on the wharf next to the sea and there were no shepherds about to give any weather warnings. We had viewed two weather forecasts yesterday evening and didn't like either of them, so planned to find something better at the i-site later today.... After watching the sunrise from our private east facing ocean view bedroom with a mug...

Friday 13th November It was a very cold night last night and we woke a couple of times despite having two duvets on our bed! It was equally cold at 5.40 when Bill woke up and went to see if the sun had risen. It hadn't. He returned to try to encourage some enthusiasm for the event from the tousle headed lump under the duvets, and, after a mug of hot tea, was successful. The sun rose most beautifully over the distant Bryant mountains beyond Nelson and then illum...

Thursday 12th November To Abel Tasman National Park Today we had a very cosmopolitan morning. We woke up in our New Zealand campsite and chatted to our French and German neighbours. We drove to Nelson where we enjoyed Italian coffee with a Danish pastry in a Swedish cafe! The campsite at Cable Bay was a good one. Not too crowded, it had the laundry, electricity and wifi that we needed. We also felt at home, being on a working sheep farm. We picked up our emai...

Wednesday 10th November Today was a travelling day. If life, or indeed this trip, is a series of bricks carefully assembled to form a wall, then today was the mortar necessary to hold it together - dull in places but essential and with a few surprising highlights! In summary, we drove south to Wellington, took the ferry to Picton and then drove on west towards Nelson. And it rained all day... The day actually started quite dramatically at about 2 am when we we...

Tuesday 10th November Napier. Awoke early today to loud birdsong in our remote forest clearing. The camper-mate app suggested that this was a popular spot for walkers, hunters and mountain bikers. The bullet holes in the back wall of the toilet and the adjacent map signboard suggested that the relationship between these groups might not be a convivial one! We were camped next to start of the Grade 5 Te Iringa mountain bike trail. That would explain something a...