At 4am this morning we were awoken by a 'cock-a-doodle-doo' or two from the site's resident cockerel! Unimpressed, we managed to go back to sleep for a few hours. We got up at a more sensible hour, and hit the road in the rain. We were heading towards Nelson today, and had planned to stay at another DOC site, but when we looked into, we found there weren't any on the way, the only ones were quite out of the way. Since we weren't planning on spending much else that day, we decided we'd stay in a 'proper' site.

On the way, we made a stop at The Buller Gorge Adventure and Heritage site, to walk over the longest swing bridge in NZ! We paid $5 each to walk over the bridge which was over 100m long…. and very scary! The bottom of the walkway was see-through grid metal, so we had a clear view of the rocks and fast-flowing river below us! Once over, we realised that we'd have to walk back over again, since we weren't doing the zip-slide option! We walked the 15-minute loop walk and learned about an earthquake which hit the site sometime in the 1900s, and caused some of the land to be pushed upwards, creating a steep cliff. Another scary walk over the bridge and we were back on steady land - our excitement for the day finished.

As we drove nearer towards Nelson, the weather got clearer, until we were driving in brilliant, hot sunshine! We stopped for lunch at a pic nic spot with a stunning lookout over the surrounding mountains, and it was so good to feel the sun at last.

We decided on a campsite in Richmond, a suburb of Nelson, and when we got there found that it was at the back of a RSA (Returned Servicemen's Association) club, and after paying our (very cheap) fee, we were given visitor membership cards to use the club's facilities. It was boiling hot so we changed into some more appropriate gear - shorts for Dave and 'jandals' for me, and walked to the nearby McDonald's for a mcflurry and to use their free wifi. We spent the rest of the afternoon sat on our chairs outside the van, enjoying the sun.

At teatime we were both hungry and not feeling very excited about cooking our pasta, so we walked into town and ate at a Thai restaurant, where the food was delicious! On the way back, we stopped at the club bar for a pint and to watch the news, before retiring to the van to read, and play the ipod game!