Hi Everyone,

We are now in the South Island and it absolutely amazing. The scenery is unbelievable.

We got up early on the Monday morning to catch the ferry over to the south island, it took about 3 hours, once you were nearing the south island the ferry had to wind its way through the Marlborough sounds and it was beautiful a great start to our journey here.

Once we arrived we headed towards Nelson via the scenic track for more great views of the Marlborough sounds. We spent the afternoon in Nelson wandering around the town and in the evening went for a walk along the beach.

Next day we headed up towards the Abel Tasman National park which we heard is just bays and headlands with lots of golden beaches, no cars allowed so the only way in is too either walk or by water taxi. We stopped a Katiteri beach just outside the park it was sooo pretty proper golden sand beaches with clear blue water ended up staying here for the rest of the day working on our tans.

Bright and early the following day we caught our water taxi into the park. The only problem was today wasnt bright but cloudy with rain threatening not a good start. The water taxi was great fun though like going in a speed boat. It took about 40 mins for us to reach Anchorage Bay. Our plan for the day was to relax on the beach here walk a bit then relax on more beaches on our way down out of the park. Unfortunatley for us due to the weather we found ourselves WALKING again!!!! As we couldnt sun ourselves we decided to do a little 1 1/2 walk to a lookout at Pitt Head which did have great views of further up the coastline. We then started our 4 hour trek back out of the park. luckily for us the day brightened up and after about 2 hours of walking we were finally able to relax on one of the great beaches we kept passing. Stayed on Appletree Bay for a good couple of hours. Matt was happy as he finally encouraged Louise to go in the sea, (good reasons for not going in, its freezing!!!). Eventually had to force ourselves to move on again as still had another good hour of walking to do. So happy when we finally reached the end and we have both vowed not to any more walking for at least a week.

Now heading down the west coast.

Hope you are all well and things are good at home.

Take care

Tatey and Lou xxx