From Motueka, we randomly passed Abel Tasman Skydive Centre. The weather was perfect and spontaneously we decided this is where we wanted to do our skydive, with amazing views of sourrounding mountains, Abel Tasman National Park and the famous Golden Bay. Within 15 minutes we had signed our lives away and were quickly geared up. After watching some people jump out of the plane and land it was our turn. We got interviewed on how we felt for the skydive video and then entered the small plane, absolutely tiny - just me, Chris and 4 others! The pilot looked quite young, and apparently the last pilot was only 21! The takeoff was quite quick and we slowly circled our way up to 13,000 feet, with amazing views of Abel Tasman National Park, Golden Bay and the surrounding Coastline and mountains. I was the first out, so nervous, I dangled my legs over the edge of the plane.. and after 3 I was freefalling for about 50 seconds which was amazing, the feeling of falling out of a plane was one of the best rushes!! It was crazy the speed that you fall at! The video looks a treat with my cheeks wabbling as I fell haha! My tandam instructor pulled the parachute cord and we did 360 spins and played about for the remainding time. He pointed out the names of the mountains, kiwi growing fields, Golden Bay and the Southern Alps. The views were just incredible! Landing was awesome, and pretty funny, I had to put my legs up in the air, and slid along the grass on our bums. It was great to know we were still alive haha. We couldn't have got a better day for it, and it is one of the most scenic places in New Zealand to skydive here so we were really glad we did it here!!

After watching our video's which were hilarious and checking out our pics it was time to move on north up through takaka to PuPu Springs. This was just out of this world. It's actually Australaysia's largest fresh water spring and holds claim to having the clearest water of any other spring in the world, except for the one in Patagonia. It really was incredible how clear it was. Looking into the spring it seemed as though parts were only about a metre deep but its actually about 3 metres or deeper. The clarity of the water just fools you. At one fo the lookouts you could see where the spring was being fed from underground with swirls on the surface of the water from the vents below the water pushing water out, it was really cool. It looked so tempting to jump into, but it would have been slightly cold and your not aloud anyway at the minute due to the Didymo problem, in rivers etc. Before i came here I just thought springs were little streams but this really was a big one and very wide at certain points, it was a lovely walk. Afterwards we moved onto Patons Rock beach for a quick gander and took a walk along the beach playing fetch with a dog that was randomly playing on the beach by itslef.

Carrying on north we wanted to get to the very top of the South Island to get to Wharariki Beach before dark. We had been told by the camp site owner that this was the most beautiful beach in the whole of New Zealand, so there was no way we were missing out on seeing that. We got there as the sun was setting and the sun was redder than I have ever seen it, it looked like a ball of fire, well I suppose it is haha. There were big islands in the sea from erosion, huge sand dunes, small caves in the sandstone rocks, and the sand was so clean and perfect. It was such a rugged and untouched beach, absolutely amazing and we are so glad we got recommended to come here. Ask it was beginning to get dark we stayed here for the night and walked back to the beach for a look in the morning and walk along the beach. There were birds, seals on the islands and we had the whole beach to ourselves, so messed around doing Kart Wheels and being complete tools, a little sad but hilarious. It was a gorgeous day and we got some amazing pictures of the beach, it was a great start to the day and after taking a walk we headed of after a couple of hours back south to our next destination Kaiteriteri, another area renound for its turqouise waters and amazing beaches just on the edge of Abel tasman Nat Park. The stretch of Golden bay between Takaka and Wharariki Beach was an amazing drive and we were so glad we had made the long trip up here, especially seeing as the weather had been great for the entire duration that we were up here.

kaitertiri was also as amazing as the pictures looked on the leaflets. We ate some lunch right on the beach front out the back of our camper which we backed up onto the edge of the beach and completely chilled out, we could have seriously fallen asleep in the basking sun lol. However we managed to get our acts together and took a trip up to the lookout over thhis bay and the neighbouring bay which was well worth the trip. Up here it had a sign showing you all he directions and distances of different places in the wolrd e.g. New york, Honolula etc, which was pretty cool.

It was from here that we wanted to enter the Abel tasman National parkk but because we needed to get down to Kaikoura, to try and do some whale watching on th East Coast we decided to take a 4 hour 3 hour cruise along Abel tasmans pristine beaches the next morning. it would have been amazing to spend a day walking in the park but we were short for time and from what everyone tells us the main attraction of the park is its turqouise beaches. If we didnt do this cruise we wouldn't have got a chance to see the amazing bays of Torent Bay, Bark bay, Tonga island, Awaroa Bay and the final bay of Totaranui, which was just out of this world, our pictures says it all. We got some time to take a walk along Totaranui bay which was just superb. again it was so untouched and the sand was the goldest I have ever seen. It was such a deep yellow colour, nothing like your normal paradise beach and the water was so clear. We were just so glad that we had decided to pay out for the cruise. On Tonga island along the coast there were loads of seals laying on the warm rocks and many Shags relaxing with them. afterwards we had a cofee and hot chocolate at the beach cafe, a lovely restaurant and then headed of for the long trip to Kaikoura. Our time in Abel tasman and Golden bay was truly amazing though and one of the nicest parts of NZ we have been to yet, a big thanks to the camp site couple for advicing us to go further up than just Abel tasman Nat Park. The quickest way to get to Kaikoura was to head up through Nelson and onto Blenheim, alarge winery region where we passed many of Vineyards and it was here that a big lorry in the oncoming traffic cracked our window screen with a rock, GGGRRRR!!! We were fuming but luckily Blenheim was a decent size town and we took it straight into a glass repair shop. We were gutted as it was a fairly big crack and we thought we were going to have to pay out for a new window screen at 180 pounds but they managed to repair the crack with a solution they use to fuse the window, stopping it from cracking anymore which only cost 30 pounds, thank god for that. We're just hoping that Escape campervan company will be ok with this, although we have followed the advice they give us in the manual so it should be fine. We had stay here the night as they couldnt repair it until the next morning and as we didnt know at the time that it could definitely be fixed we were pi**ed off so went out to the movies and to a local cafe for a drink, we made the best of a bad situation. Once it was fixed the next morning and we got the all clear to drive it we headed straight of for Kaikoura, cringing at every lorry we drove past but eventually we got there and surprise surprise the weather was now shocking.