We picked up the campervan in Christchurch and headed north to Kaikoura for the night with Paul reassuring himself with the mantra... only 2 weeks in the van... only 2 weeks in the van... Fortunately this one is in better repair than the Aussie one.

We stayed in a beautiful campsite just outside Kaikoura right on the coast, which was very windy and dramatic with all the driftwood on the beach. Made the most of the fact it doesn't get dark til much later than Australia (around 10pm) and headed onto the beach for a post-dinner stroll and got a couple of "magical photos" which you can check out...

Headed over to Nelson the next day, with me mournfully giving up the idea of a wine-fuelled afternoon of sauvignon blanc tasting in Marlborough given the state of the budget... with one of us driving it was never going to be much fun for the driver, so all fair really... Despite a good look for them, we failed to find any of the much talked about Nelson art galleries (think we were on the wrong streets), so Nelson was a very rapid wander around and use of the i-site to book our Kayak and walk into the Abel Tasman national park for our next stop.

We'd chosen the cheapest place we could find in Nelson - and turned up to find it was a social club / caravan park with a number of long-term residents, not dis-similar to Phoenix Nights... We'd turned up on "club draw night" which had brought all the members out of the woodwork... the bathrooms on the site were referred to as male and female ablutions. Say no more. It was only 1 night...