So after a lovely visit to Wellington and staying with relatives for a few days, it was a 3am wake up call to catch the 6am ferry to the South Island...
My first stop after arriving at the port of picton was Havelock, which should have taken an hour at tops!!! But no not clairey
I obviously took a wrong turning and spent the next 3 hours high up in the mountains on dirt tracks... And I mean dirt track. The hills were so steep that the muscles in my legs hurt so much where my leg was hovering over the brakes so much. I thought I was going to have to spend the night up there!!! Well I had water, nuts, fruit & tent and mozzy spray... I was sorted! Then I came across a young German lad and I politely put that I was lost and could he help. To which he obligingly did and directed me off to a proper tarmac road.... So I eventually arrive in Nelson some hours later than planned! I had heard about it being the centre of NZ, so decided to go and take a look. There's me thinking it would be a nice monument somewhere close town... It was a 30 minute hike up a dirt track and there's me in flip flops, shorts and a vest!!! But when I got up there, the views were spectacular. My evening was finished off with a fish & chip beach supper.
The following day I decided to head out to Motueka and Kaiteriteri. What beautiful, stunning beaches. I decided to have a beach day and met up with a lovely couple from Christchurch. We sat discussing my trip etc etc and they offered to take me out kayaking. It was brilliant, so peaceful and I got the hang of it really quickly!! So after a burnt back, the feeling of a cold coming on, it was time to head to my pit for the night...