Wellington - Nelson (via Picton)

Monday 4th January

We had to be up really early to catch the shuttle to the ferry at 7.10am. The bus drove us to the Interlander ferry terminal. We checked in and boarded the ferry. It was huge! The journey was about 3 hours long and we arrived in Nelson late afternoon and checked into Paradiso Hostel.

Tuesday 5th January. Alison's Birthday!

Oh My Goodness, one of our earliest starts yet, the bus came to pick us up a 6.20am to take us to Abel Tasman but before this we gave Alison her birthday presents. When we got on the bus it did a lot of pick ups even drove to some places where nobody got on the bus and eventually arrived at the kayak place at about 8.30am. We were introduced to our guide Emily and put on out spray decks and life jackets. We set off in a tractor to across the beach to the sea. We unloaded our Kayaks into the water and jumped in. It was a lovely journey around Abel Tasman, we even got up close to some seals sunbathing on the rocks and swimming in the waves. When we got back to the kayak place we had to wait for ages for our transfer back to Nelson. We played cards with James and Ian who were also travelling on the magic bus. When the bus eventually came we all slept on the drive back to Nelson, it had been a tiring day. Back at the hostel we had showers and decided we all wanted fish and chips for dinner so after looking for the room key for ages we walked to the fish and chip shop. It had closed about 3 minutes before we got there, we were not happy but all was well as Gareth, Alison and I had dominos for dinner instead. After dinner we brought out Alison's birthday cake which was the same yummy chocolate cake that my Mum had for her birthday, just half the size.