Abel Tasman National Park is the smallest but undoubtedly one of the prettiest in the whole of South Island. Perched right up the top of the island it benefits from the same microclimate that makes the Marlborough area so good for wine growing. Its lush tropical forested hills overlook beautiful sheltered sandy coves and in the shelter of the bay the sea is calm and crystal clear. Right on cue after the murky weather we'd had when travelling north the sun came out as we approached Abel Tasman so we booked the classic walking tour the next day. A boat trip up the coast then a 14km walk back down the coast to be picked up later that afternoon.

After the walk, we said our goodbyes to the sandflies (theoretically this was the last place we were going to which had them) and headed off towards Nelson, the "other" place after Bleheim area which is famous for the NZ Sauvignon Blanc wines - to take in the Saturday market.

We thought we were in Nelson New Zealand but had obviously taken a wrong turning somewhere and ended up in Nelson am Rhein in Germany ! All the hard-core greens & ecologists from Germany seem to have taken up residence in Nelson. You can see why - there's a mediterranean climate& they can buy land very cheaply (compared to Germany) and live their ecological lifestyle. So as well as many of the visitors to the market a lot of the stall holders selling their organic fruit & vegetables were German. Anyway we had a very pleasant morning & spent a small fortune on, it has to be said, very tasty organic produce. This included the BEST fruit Vod & I have ever tasted in our lives. Local plums with a dark cherry coloured flesh and juice. They had the most fantastic intense flavour - we were so impressed that we've kept some stones to plant in the garden in Vaux. Hopefully people will be able to taste them by about 2016 !

Next destination - back to Picton, 7 weeks after we first landed there. This time we camped in a very remote campsite on the Pacific Coast in "Robin Hood Bay" - an hours drive on very steep and twisty gravel roads with steep drops down the mountains into the sea - but we're getting very adventurous now. As a reward for actually getting there, this campsite was free of charge. The next morning we zig-zagged our way into Picton and booked our second mountain biking trip on the Queen Charlotte Sound. When we were here 7 weeks ago we had walked one of middle sections and mountain biked the last section. The first section which started in Ships Cove, the place where Capt Cook first landed in New Zealand, was closed to mountain bikes until 3/Mar - which was a shame as it seemed the best part for cycling. Anyway now we were back in town and it was now open to us so we booked a water taxi for the next day to take us to the start of the ride & then pick us up in the afternoon at the end of the ride. What a day that turned out to be. It took almost 2 hrs in the boat to get to the drop off point way out at the end of the Sound, almost in the Cook Straights. Then when we finally got ashore, Stewart's bike decided to have a bad day so running repairs were required and in the end we had just 3 ½ hours to cycle back to the pick up point. The track was fantastic as it went through the rain forest but there were some challenging climbs & for the first half of the day a lot of "technical sections" (Vod calls them "deadly bits" & swears at Stewart a lot) with tree roots, greasy rocks, mud & steep drop offs. This included a fallen tree across the track at about 1m80 high - which Stewart, concentrating very hard on the "technical" track didn't see and crash tested his cycling helmet by hitting it full on with his head and ending up in a heap, dazed on the floor. We found out later that some guy the week before had done the same thing and had sustained head injuries & had to be taken out by helicopter. Fortunately, other than a slight headache and a grazed shoulder Stewart was ok. Which is just as well. With no stops for lunch we peddled frantically on and arrived in a sweaty & muddy heap just 10 mins before the boat was due to pick us up ! !

Plan for that evening was a drive back to the campsite, shower, barbecue, then early night as we were taking the ferry to North Island the next afternoon.. However we'd heard from the water taxi driver that there had been a gale warning for the next day for the Cook Straight - which is famous for the violence of its storms. So we cancelled everything, drove down to the ferry port in Picton, changed our booking and were on the ferry to Wellington still in our cycling gear and caked in mud barely an hour after we got off the water taxi. It was the right decision - the crossing was peacefully calm and before we'd even realised it or had time to say our farewells we'd left the South Island - although the sandflies had kindly come to our Picton campsite the night before to say goodbye !