21st to 24th October 21st, thursday Feeling fit we intended to spend a good few days tramping the Abel Tasman Coastal track at teh far north of the south island so we headed up to Motueka, a cool little place full of the woodstock generation. The weather was great so we passed through and drove further up to the beach at Kaiteriteri where we stayed for the next couple of nights taking things easy and sunning oursleves. 23rd saturday With our camping passes from the DOC station, our tent on our back, a rucksac ful of backcountry foods and of course a bag of scroggin (delicious combination of peanuts, raisins, seeds, dried fruit and m&m's) we started out on the track. The only way out of the park unless you walk the whole thing (possible in 3 days) is to book a water taxi out which we had for three days later. The walk is really nice and passes by loads of golden sandy beaches. Unfortunately Claire became more ill as the trecjk went on and the waether turned on us. We camped at Achorage campground under a tree by teh beach. We were cold an wet through that evening and out tent had finally given up being water proof. The weather report said it was due to get worse so the next morning we decided not to be so stubborn and to leave and go back to the luxury of campervan living. The highlight was cooking our dehydrated Backcountry packet of Beef Curry (eaten out of the packet) and Apricot crumble (also straight from the packet). Not bad at all. 24th So the following morning we had to make the decision to walk to the next phone and then to the next water taxi pick up a 4 hr hike away. All along the track there are points that cant be crossed at hight tide so armed with a daily tide time sheet you have to plan your treck carefully. At low tide we walked across a sloppy sand bay to get to the phone and then on to the taxi. It turns out that we walk a hell of a lot faster than most of the signs indicate so we even had time for lunch. After we caught the taxi back we drove back down to stay the night at Kaiteriteri again. Despite the reports teh weather actually turned out to be glorious for the next few days. oh well we are in the middle of the ocean.