We left Waitomo for Wanganui with a stopover in Raeti - we watched the fuel gauge for the last 30km of the trip as fuel was low and no petrol site was to be found, luckily one appeared before we ran out but it was close, one more big hill and we would have been b*****ed. We now know were all the sheep are on the North Island as they were all over the mountain fields and roads. There wasn't alot going on in Wanganui so we decided to head for Wellington for a few days before going over to the South Island, after hitting rush hour traffic and not being able to find a campsite we went to see when we could book a ferry to Picton, as luck would have it we could get a bargain rate if we went on the freight service at 9.00pm the same day - only 3 hours to kill so food and drink were in order. We got on the ferry okay and Vee as usual got motion sickness an hour into the 3.5hr journey and made good friends with the toilet bowl for the next 2 hours. The ferry arrived just after 1 in the morning so we found a campsite about 1500 metres from the port and pulled up for the night -kiwis are so trusting they just leave notes on the office doors telling you to find a pitch and pay in the morning when the office opens, there is no way any park on sheppey would do this as they would end up with squatters who wouldn't pay.

We're going to have a quiet day with no water activities involved, just wandering through the forests today and then head for Blenheim and Kaikoura tomorrow to see if we can find some Whales to watch.