We decided to tackle the long drive from kaikoura to abel tasman national park with no overnight stops. In the end Ash drove over 7 hours to our stop in Pohara Beach, Becky did offer to drive but Ash declined as some of the roads on the way wern't very nice to drive and there was a pretty horrible bit of the drive(Upper Takaka) up and down a mountain which we are both getting used to now! We got there and walked along the beach, Becky cooked tea, and we watched telly, Ash was quite tired! The next day we got up and just could not be bothered to do anything! The weather was grey, on off rainy and we were both not in the mood to go sea kayaking or on a boat trip like we had planned so instead we slept late, had a pancake breakfast, drove up the coast to golden bay and had a walk along the beach it was lovely and the sand was literally golden! Then we wandered in to the nearest town of Takaka bought some food, had a look in the tourist info place which they call i-site here and then went back to the van, Becky did all the washing and cleaned the van while Ash watched US football and ice hockey on the TV, just like at home! As the weather was pretty bad Becky decided to make a beef stew which went down really well, we have managed to come up with some good recipes to cook on just two gas rings! We used some of our towels to dry off when we went to the mud place at Rotorua and still can not get the smell of sulphur off them, it is really gross so Becky was really naffed off after washing them a few times and they still stunk!

The next day we planned to get up early and join a boat tour that takes you into Abel Tasman national park and then you hike along a pathway to the other side for a few hours and get picked up at a differnt beach by the water taxi but when we woke at 7am it was raining an unbelievable amount and there was terrible gusts of wind we were both pretty gutted and went back to sleep knowing that a boat journey and a hike would be no fun in this weather. So later we drove out of the national park we were both bored of waiting for the weather to clear up and did not want to wait another day before moving onto the next place so went to Kaiteritere beach which was voted one of the top ten beaches in the world, there were two ducks on the beach following us forn some food, dont't think we've ever seen ducks on a beach before. The rain cleared up just as we got there about 12pm but the wind was still horrible so we walked along the beach in a sand storm and were wondering if we should go on a boat trip but then the rain clouds rolled in again so we drove on, down to our next destination. On the way we barely saw any cars on the road but saw lots of workmen picking up massive trees which had fell into the road and the river was overflowing with lots of trees in it, Ash found this very exciting and we stopped so he could take lots of photos.

We got as far as Murchison on the way to the west coast of the south island and Ash could not be bothered to drive any further, so we saw a little camp site and stopped. It was next to the river and big mountains and was in a pretty rural location, the lady owner of the camp told us they had the worst storms the night before all along the west coast and the road which we were about to take was closed due to flooding. So this described the crazy stuff on the roads and in the river and the horrible wind, she said her neighbours cattle had been struck by lightening and killed. She told us of a place in town which was an antique store, with nothing else to do and in need of an onion for our tea we decided to wander in. The antique store was really cool just like the car boot warehouse at home and we found all manner of pottery from Stoke within a few seconds of entering (surprise surprise, you cant go anywhere without looking at the back stamps) there was loads of stuff and we bought some books to read (Ash even bought a H.G Wells book). The camp site was one of our favourites so far and was called Murchison Motor Park. There was loads of mozzies though being so close to the river.