It was a real struggle getting up in the morning as we had to be collected to go to the ferry at 6:45am. We had to wait quite a while in the ferry terminal which was annoying as I kept thinking that I could be sleeping! We eventually got going about 8am and I was surprised at the size of the ferry and the fact that it would take 3.5 hours to get from the north island to the south as I didn't think it would be that far. On the ferry there was a cinema so we settled down to watch Cars and after about 15 minutes I fell asleep and woke again in time for the final 10 minutes.

We were all hoping to have a better coach in Picton as our last one had the most shocking sound system, but when we got it it looked so ancient, didn't have seatbelts and had awful suspension which meant that you ended up bouncing around in your seat. Picton looked like a really cute harbour town but unfortunately we didn't get to spend any time there.

We drove through Marlbourough vineyard area and stopped for some wine tasting. It was good to try it but none of them were particularly tasty. We then stopped off at the coastal city of Nelson, which looked really picturesque and had beatufiul beaches. It was only a quick break to pick up some more people though. We got chatting to a girl called Amanda who had just started her travels with Stray and is Canadian. When we got on the coach again we saw a sign saying Devon street and we all went 'ahhhh' at the same time which made us giggle. We stopped off for a supermarket shop and Sarah, Stefan and I bought ingredients for a bolognese.

Early evening we arrived at Marahau which is a remote place at the edge of Abel Tasman National Park in a place called The Barn where I shared a cabin with Amanda and was excited to find that we had single beds rather than bunkbeds like most people. We went for a quick walk down to the beach which was beautiful as you could see the mountains and forest area behind. When we returned to the camp Nat (our driver) had the BBQ ready and we had quite a feast. We were able to try locally caught mussels too, which were really tasty. After dinner we toasted marshmallows on the fire and then wondered down to a little local cafe that had an open mic night. I spent a lot of time chatting to Sarah who I get on really well with as we're really similar.