Heading North once more we stopover in Westport after our hard day's graft in Barrytown! Up and at 'em the next morning sees us finally change direction as we make our way East to the Tasman region. However there is of course a stop along the way! This time it's Buller's Gorge, home to NZ's longest swingbridge, and also the epicentre of the 1929 earthquake. The swingbridge itself is extremely narrow and around half way across I realise that I'm not actually all that happy to be on it! Below is an extremely unfriendly looking river with a great deal of rocks - as if sensing my rising fear Rich shakes the bridge! Very funny indeed. I make my way across ASAP, glad to be back on safe ground, but not looking forward to the return leg! On the other side there are a series of walks taking you around the earthquake fault line as well as around some old mining machinery used during the gold rush. I decided to get my act together for the way back and actually enjoy the view up and down the river - although marginally better I was still grateful to be back in the van!!!

Back on the road and our target is Richmond, a town just outside of Nelson. Here we plan to explore the countryside, namely the vineyards!!! We find ourselves a campsite for the night and prepare for the days ahead "researching" the local produce!

After the previous night's research we narrow down the vineyards to visit and head off. Our first stop is a lovely place with a sunny outside deck overlooking the vines. We decide to be sensible and start with a coffee...... After dragging ourselves from the sun we head to the bar and begin sampling. Along with the wine we get a history of the vineyard including it's many awards. We dodge the dreaded question regarding purchases and move on to the second. This is a lot more upmarket, but luckily the lady behind the bar is from England and we're soon chatting away. More stories of awards ensue and as the purchase question looms once more we make our way to the restaurant for a seat in the sun and some fresh bread to mop up the wine! Winery number 3 is far less chatty so we literally taste our wines and leave, no guilt about buying here! After a satisfying wine tasting day we head back to our campsite and our cask wine - no expense spared for backpackers!!!

The next day is market day in Nelson so we drive in to have a look. Unbeknown to us at the time, the market was in the carpark that we were heading for, so after a major detour around the town we found alternative parking! The market is a mixture of local farmers selling their produce - fruit, veg, meat, cheese, flowers - and local artists selling theirs too. Much to our delight there's a great deal of sampling here too - bargain! We spend a good few hours wandering around the many stalls, then head into town for a look around the shops too. We decide to finish our day by treating ourselves to dinner - we head to a place called The Lone Star, a place we've frequently seen packed in other towns. We soon found out why - the ginormous portion size! Our plates are grossly overfilled and we struggle with what we can manage before asking for doggy bags - looks like lunch'll be covered for tomorrow at least!

Our next day is spent once more in Nelson, this time at their flea market. We had it on good information that this was a real quirky market and definitely worth a look, what we weren't told was that nobody turns up if the weather's not good - which it wasn't! Slightly disappointed we drove back out to Richmond, this time via Monaco (amusingly pronounced "mon-ar-co" here!) Although we were drawn by the place name there is also a huge English country pub by the name of "The Honest Lawyer"! From the courtyard you sit looking out over the sea with the airport a stone's throw away. After refuelling here we headed out to Rabbit Island. More amusing names drawing us........ A great beach (on a sunny day) and very peaceful - a pleasant wander around and we're done for the day.

We decide to venture further into the Abel Tasman National Park so head off with various recommendations and directions scribbled down from friendly locals. Our first port of call is Motueka. Arts and crafts a plenty here - and lots of cafes too. We make good use of those before heading further in. Kaiteriteri is next on our agenda, cited as "the best beach in NZ" by one eager guy at our campsite. A beautiful bay indeed, hard to imagine how busy it probably is in summer when we're sat here in autumn though. Back on the road and we're driving around the outside of the Abel Tasman Park to Takaka. From here we've been told to "hang a right" to Totaranui. The drive sees us climb the steep and extremely windy Takaka Hill. From here there are stunning views and we stop at many a lookout along the way. The final leg of the journey turns out to be gravel - 12km of the damn stuff! When we finally arrive we're greeted by another beautiful beach with walks leading every which way. We decide to head south to Skinners Point, and find ourselves a quiet spot (!) in Goat Bay to have a late lunch in. The weather takes a turn for the worst so we head back to the van.

After a long day of driving and sightseeing we head back to Richmond and call for pizza!!!