Arriving in Napier we thought we had been teleported to America, the palm tree lined streets could easily have been LA. We settle on a beach side carpark for our first night, which is quite uneventful. Probably needed after the carnage of the last few days, plus we need to prepare ourselves for tomorrow. 11am, we get ferried out with mountain bikes to Vineyard Central. Today was hilarious. Unison, our first stop. Here we were given free chocolate to accompany th...

The ferry journey from the South was calm, with scenery comparable to Milford Sound. Unfortunately, a new island does not equal new organisational skills, and useless as ever, all we had to entertain ourselves with for the four hour journey was food (wraps) and the Bible (NZ Lonely Planet). When we were done with this, we slept. Continuing our disorganised trend, we rang Brian and Lavinia who we met in Moeraki, when we were ten minutes from their house! They kin...

We rock up in Blenheim, looking slightly worse for wear given that our last shower was yesterday morning, and we have embarked on skydiving, kayaking and trekking since then! Kurt and Vaughan, hitch hiker #1's friends, have kindly taken us in again, for the bargain price of 1 case of Tui! Yes. The international currency - beer. They tell us we stink, order us into the shower and while we begin our getting ready party, they start on their own. The lounge fills up ...

Enroute to Abel Tasman, we stopped twice. First stop to buy some local honey from a bee farm, second stop was not quite as exciting. We were enticed in by a huge roadside sign "Abel Tasman Skydiving". This was at 12.30, and by 1 we were jump suited up, harnessed in and sat in a plane preparing to hurl ourselves to the ground. The whole experience was organised with Formula 1 pitstop precision - they certainly did not waste any time hanging about. In hindsight th...

Muruia Springs enroute were Japanese, really smelly (like rotten eggs), black algae floating in them and baking hot, not the most pleasant experience and whilst sitting in them we did question what we were doing. To prove our point further though once showered and sat in the coffee shop in walked Sean on his way back from an interview!! With a speeding ticket in tow, clearly he was in a rush to get back to us. Only joking apparently he was looking at a plane! So...