Today we woke up quite early and had our showers in the rugby club changing rooms! We set off to Lower Hutt centre for a trip to Pak N Save. We also called in at Harvey Norman as we'd seen an advert in the paper for a cheap phone and ours needs replacing as it doesn't charge properly. The one we wanted was sold out - apparently they've been very popular because they're only $44 (22 pounds)! The guy in the shop told us that they still had twenty of them in the Wellington store, so that was our next stop - new phone sorted!

It was getting close to our ferry departure by then, so we headed down to the waterfront and the Bluebridge ferry terminal. Eventually we drove our little van onto the HUGE ship and settled ourselves in the lounge upstairs for the three hour crossing. As we were leaving, the weather got worse - heavy rain followed us all the way to Blenheim, where we stopped just out of town at a place called Spring Creek. The campsite was OK, but the non-stop rain made it seem pretty miserable. We drove down to the nearby hotel at 8:30pm to try and watch South Africa vs Wales in the rugby but as we pulled up it looked like the place was closing - staff leaving, chairs on tables - so we drove straight back to the campsite and listened to the game on the radio and the rain outside! Welcome to the South Island!