We've made it to the South Island. The last few days have been pretty grey and rather rainy at times, but we had plenty of fun.

After our first evening in Napier, we had a long lie and a late breakfast, then hung around the campsite until it was time for our wine tour. We were picked up by Vince, our charismatic local wine-lover, in his minibus and met the only other attendee on the tour, Chloe, a girl from South Korea who lived and worked in Auckland but was on holiday in Napier.

Vince first took us through a fancy residential area of Napier to Mission Winery, the first winery established in the area. Here, we sampled 3 reds and 3 whites as well as a dessert wine, including some typical Hawke's Bay wines namely the spicy Syrah and creamy Chardonnay. After our tasting we had a quick look around the smart Mission building which was a large white colonial style building, moved from its original location to its current one on a hill overlooking Hawke's Bay to avoid flooding.

Then it was time to move onto our next winery, as Vince drove us out of Napier towards Hastings, through the famous Gimblett Gravels wine growing area to the Salvare winery. Here we tasted some more nice wines as well as sampling their olive oils and dukkah, a north african dry spicy dip. We also got to try a vino frappe, which is basically a wine slush puppy made with wine, water and a powdered product containing flavourings and sweeteners to create the slush, only available through that winery. We all really enjoyed the vino frappe despite the cool weather, but still had more wine to taste as we moved on to more wineries.

After being driven over the countryside to two more wineries, Ngatarawa and Crossroads, we ended up back in Napier at the Church Road winery where I tried my favourite wines of the day, their delicious oaked Sauvignon Blanc and a great blended red consisting of 6 local grape varieties which seemed to have the best qualities of all of them. By this point the two girls were 'a little tipsy' as Chloe put it, and having had fun during the day we decided to stick together for the rest of the afternoon.

We got Vince, our tour guide to drop us off in Napier town centre at an Irish bar, where we had a beer whilst trying to fend off a creepy Korean guy who was trying to impress Chloe by buying her wine and having it delivered to our table.

Deciding we had had quite enough alcohol, particularly the girls, and that it was time for food, we made our way to a Thai restaurant on Napier's Marine Parade which Chloe had heard was good. Here, we enjoyed one of the best Thai meals we have had, with a Tom Yum soup which Lucy will not shut up about!

After dinner, despite it only being around 8 pm, we all decided to call it a night, feeling as if we'd had a full night out. We walked Chloe to her backpacker hostel and made our way through the suburbs of Napier to our campsite before crashing out for the night.

The next day we got up, got everything packed up and left the campsite before driving into the centre of Napier, along Marine Parade, and up to Bluff Hill Overlook where a view over the harbour in Napier and the bay to the north is available. However, the dreich weather left the view rather uninspiring. Like the rest of Napier, I could imagine it being beautiful on a bright summer's day. From the overlook we made our way back into town, parked, and had a walk through the old town centre, full of its quirky Art Deco buildings constructed after the earthquake and fire which decimated the town in 1931. I like the Art Deco architectural style anyway and thought it fit really well in a seaside town like Napier. I'd love to come back and see the town in the sunshine in the height of summer.

After walking around the town, it was time to leave Napier. We had been in touch with a family friend of Lucy's, Jean Ross, who lived in Wanganui in the west of the north island so we made our way there, heading south, on SH2 along the coast before turning inland through the endless farmland. Our path took us west through numerous small towns until we eventually reached Wanganui, a pleasant small town along a river which reminded me of Perth.

We found our way to Jean's house where we were given a warm welcome and spent the afternoon chatting over tea. Jean was kind enough to offer us a bed for the night but, not wanting to put her out we suggested that we would stay in the van outside the house so we would save some money not having to go to a campsite but wouldn't cause too much bother using the spare room in her house.

To pay her back we went out and got some fish and chips for tea from the local takeaway. We loved these small local takeaways which were all run by Chinese people and invariably had a cheap as Chinese buffet as well as amazing deals on fish and chips, such as 3 fish, 3 sausages and chips for $10 which worked out at about £5!

After dinner we chatted some more with Jean before setting up our bed in the van and reading before getting another good night's sleep, listening to the rain pelting down on Happy Diwali's roof, a rather soothing and pleasant sound.

The next morning after a great breakfast laid on by Jean we said our goodbyes and headed into the small and pleasant town centre in Wanganui. Here, we walked up to the war memorial and had a look round a free art gallery which had some great exhibitions of local photography from the past, then had a wander into Cook's Gardens, a small park in the centre. Then, on our way out of town we drove through a park which had one of the coolest adventure playgrounds we had ever seen with a full on stone castle, not to mention a slide made out of a huge fibreglass dinosaur, a giant loch ness monster poking out of the ground and swings hanging from the arms of a giant octopus. It was enough to make us want to be 5 again just so we could play on the stuff, and was apparently one of the first playparks in New zealand.

From Wanganui we then made our way back east towards Palmerston North before turning south on our way to Wellington. With another grey dull day, the scenery wasn't incredible but as the road approached Wellington it ran right along the ocean, separated from the churning white horses by a low concrete wall over which spray would occasionally blast.

After a descent through a steep valley we found ourselves in Wellington, tucked into a narrow strip of land between the hills and the huge natural harbour it surrounds. We made our way from the motorway around the quaysides, eventually finding ourselves outside Te Papa, the national museum. Deciding as it was such a grim day that the museum would be the best way to spend our afternoon we parked up and headed into the huge, free museum for a look around.

We spend a few hours checking out the great natural history displays which featured loads of Kiwi animals as well as plenty of topical info about earthquakes and the forces at work shifting our continents around, not to mention a preserved colossal squid which, despite looking a bit the worse for wear after plenty of freezing and thawing and prodding by scientists, was awesome to see.

After that we had a look around the cultural areas with some interesting exhibits on Maori culture and Pacific Islanders in general before making our way back out to the van. From Te Papa we made our way back north out of the city to Lower Hutt, further round the bay from the city centre and the site of the local Top 10 Holiday Park. We set up the van and got some laundry on, trying to avoid the heavy rain which started shortly after we arrived and continued all night.

After another night tucked up in the van listening to the rain, it was time to head back into Wellington before catching our ferry at lunchtime. We parked in the town centre and had a walk up Cuba Street, full of quirky shops and plenty of cafes. We managed to get a cheap breakfast in a characterful greasy spoon-style establishment run by some Russians before heading down to the civic square and checking out the town hall and waterfront areas.

After that we made our way back to the van, via a 2nd hand bookstore to pick up a cheap NZ guidebook (better late than never) then drove down to the ferry terminal to wait for our ferry.

After sitting and reading the guidebook for a while it was our turn to load onto the ferry, which we did before finding some seats and getting some lunch before we set sail. The 3+ hour crossing passed quickly and pleasantly. Not long after we left Wellington I was out for the count and slept most of the way, although Lucy told me it was rather a choppy crossing with the boat heaving and pitching around. Despite this, she found it comfortable as well.

Once I woke up, we were approaching the Marlborough Sounds, so I spent most of the rest of the journey out on deck admiring the amazing scenery as we sailed past rocky cliffs then through channels between the steep, tree and pasture-covered slopes which plunged into the blue water around us.

I saw a few dolphins jumping as we sailed towards Picton, but the real star was the landscape which was beatiful to watch as we sailed past. The sky was a little clearer around the South Island, and it was nice to have a little sunshine after the last few grey and wet days.

Eventually we pulled in through a last narrow channel to dock at Picton. We drove off and down to the pretty waterfront just as the sun was setting, before heading south again, through the darkening landscape to Blenheim about 26 kms away. We found the Top 10 park just at the entrance to town and got set up, then nipped into town as Lucy had a craving for Thai food which I was happy to join her in satisfying.

With our takeaway, we returned to the holiday park to relax for the evening and make some plans for the next few days.