We were rudely awoken this morning by a man using a jackhammer in our car park. The others got up but I was determined to have a lie in so I put on my ear plugs and put my eye mask on and tried to get back to sleep.

I couldn't properly sleep again, but half an hour later when I took my mask off, the others had disappeared (it turns out they had gone to the YHA). I used my phone for a bit to go online before getting up and tidying the campervan.

When the others came back an hour or so later, we sat in the campervan for a couple of hours having some lunch and reading, and I tried to work out an itinerary for the South island. It's a good job I did as we realised that we are quite pushed for time and will have to only really spend a day in each place.

At one ish we walked into town and caught the cable car, which was more of a fernicular railway, up to the botanical gardens where we had a nice afternoon just ambling about not doing anything in particular.

When we got back down we spent ages in Borders where there was a huge sale on, and we all got a couple of books. I got a fiction book to read for £1 and a Lonely Planet guide to England for £2.50. It's really interesting to read about places you live from a tourist's point of view!

After a couple of hours reading in the campervan, we headed to the ferry terminal. We got on the ferry at 7pm, and it didn't leave until 9.15pm, and then took 3 hours, so we were on it for ages. Sophie, Hannah and I got a kids meal of chicken nuggets and chips for £3.40, and the guy gave us eight nuggets instead of four and I got two free things of ketchup because the guy at the till decide he couldn't be bothered to put them through.

After the food I found a reclining seat, read for a bit and then slept the rest of the way. We have parked up to sleep in Picton before heading to Abel Tasman National Park in the morning.

xxx