A 6am start from Wellington to catch the Bluebridge ferry across to Picton on the south island. We were on the ferry for 3 hours, then at Picton picked up 20 more interesting characters to fill our coach, I thought I wanted more people, but actually most of the people we picked up seemed just as unfriendly as the first bunch.

We stopped on our way to Abel Tasman at a winery and tasted lots of fine NZ wines. This was the Malborough region and thier Sauvignon Blanc was lovely. We drove a for long time today, stopped briefly at another town called Nelson which was nice.

Finally reached Abel Tasman National Park at around 7pm. We were staying in a cute place called The Barn in Marahau for 2 nights. Salty cooked us another awesome BBQ of steak, chicken and huge local mussels. We spent the rest of the evening with a few beers around the camp fire.

The next morning in Abel Tasman I had booked myself onto an Aqua Taxi to go to to a place called Anchorage and then walk 4 hours back. I woke up not feeling too good today, so delayed it by a couple of hours. I was so determined to do this walk after missing out on Tongariro in the north island that I went anyway. The Aqua taxi was speedy, seen a rock formation called 'Split Apple Rock', also saw seals swimming and then got off at Anchorage and walked back to Marahau. This was a beautiful scenic walk, but I really really shouldn't of gone. My legs felt like jelly the whole time and my heart was racing. When I eventually got back I was relived and exhausted I was in bed at 4pm and next thing I knew it was the next morning and we were getting on the coach to go to our next destination. I must of really not been well...