The drive from Kaikora to Nelson took about 3 hours, and we were back to driving on bendy roads. The first part of the journey was along the coast and the sea was probably the roughest I have ever seen, but it was still very nice to see. As we got further north towards Nelson the weather got better and better and the sky cleared right up. This made us feel much happier! The Nelson area is supposed to get the most sun out of the whole of New Zealand, and it seemed to be true. The town was actually quite big and seemed very lively. After the night before in Kaikora we thought we would like it much better there! We checked into our campsite that afternoon when we arrived and relaxed there the rest of the night. We met a couple there who we had first met in Dunedin and they told us all the best places to go there, which turned out to be helpful.

The next morning was cold and frosty which we knew as soon as we woke up as there was frost on the inside of the van, but it was still sunny and it turned out to be a really nice day. We went for a walk around the botanical reserve and we walked up a very steep hill to get to the spot which is the very centre of new Zealand. There was a big sculpture thing there that showed the centre point but as it was so high up on the hill it also gave great views of Nelson and the surrounding mountains. That was our excercise for the day done with. After that we walked around the town for a bit and went to the Nelson museum too. I think we have been to too many museums now though as everything we see is something we have already seen before, so we didn't stay long. Justin seemed to enjoy the part that displayed old womens clothes, as he got to dress up in them! The couple we met the night before told us there was a bar in town that did a really nice, cheap roast dinner so we went there for lunch. It was really nice as we miss having proper dinners. You can get sick of pasta quite quickly apparantly! I had some nice New Zealand lamb and we even got a apple crumble for free afterwards.

We were going to move on the next day but thought we would stay one more night as we couldn't really be bothered to leave, and we also liked it in Nelson. We just used our last day there as a chill out day. I had tried to book to do a tour in the morning but couldn't end up doing it due to lack of numbers. We had a nice lie in instead and walked into town for lunch. That night we went to the cinema to watch the new Narina film; Prince Caspian. The film was good but it was also nice to go out at night for once. We have been trying to be really good and save money by not going out drinking and things, but watching TV everynight does get a bit boring. We left Nelson early the next day to drive to Picton. The drive was short but really nice as the road took us right along the edge of the Malbouruogh Sounds. Some of the views were amazing and we stopped off a few times along the way. Picton was going to be the last place we stayed at in the South Island, as we only went there so we could catch the ferry to Wellington and the North Island the following morning. As the ferry was quite early we thought we would stay in Picton the night. It was quite a small town and there wasn't much to do so we just went to a cafe for lunch and had a wander around. The weather started to turn in the afternoon and we spent the rest of the day dodging the rain. We had to get an early night so we could be up in time for the ferry, and were both excited to be moving on, but it was sad to leave the South Island as I had liked it so much and it meant our time was quickly running out!