We left The Lazy Shag at 9am this morning to head northwards up to Picton via Blenheim, where most people got off the bus to catch the ferry to Wellington and just under 50 people coming off the ferry joined our bus. Everyone seems to be of a similar age to me or a bit younger if they are having a gap year after finishing school. The majority are English although there are a few from Denmark and Switzerland.

We also changed drivers at Picton - we now have a woman called Bridget, although I'll be changing drivers again in a couple of days because I've booked an extra night at our next stop. Having loaded up the bus again, we drove west through Nelson (which looks like a lovely town with beautiful beaches), did a supermarket stop in Richmond, and finally reached our destination, Kaiteriteri, at around 5pm. Kaiteriteri is a very small resort and gateway to the Abel Tasman National Park. It is renowned for its clean, golden beach and clear, sparkling waters. We're staying at the Kaiteri Lodge where they're obviously used to welcoming bus loads of Kiwi Experience passengers. They've even given each of us a set of cutlery, a plate, bowl and cup which makes a nice change from the polystyrene I've been using!

There's not much to do here if you can't drive though - you can only really get anywhere by car or boat. I did manage to go for a 5 mile run but only by doing the same loop twice. I followed the Kaiteriteri track which leads up to a lookout across the bay and then on down to Little Kaiteriteri beach. I also followed Withell's Walk up a hill behind our lodge but it just leads to a maze of narrow footpaths and steep mountain bike tracks, none of which seem to lead anywhere in particular! It was a lovely clear evening though so I did get some lovely views from the top of the hill.

I've booked a half day kayaking trip towards the National Park for tomorrow morning so hopefully the weather will stay nice for that...