Day 29Tahuna Bay, Nelson

Day dawned bright and sunny as forecast so we decided that we had had enough driving for a while and stayed put in Nelson for the day. Talk about coincidence, a Dutch couple that we were talking to at a campsite a couple of days ago at Greymouth were parked close to us here and they are on the same ferry to Wellington as well so we shared some of the experiences we had both encountered. After breakfast, a big fry up cooked by Bill, we needed to get some exercise so went for a walk into the town which is 5km away; a pleasant walk though along the beachfront and round the harbour. This place is bit like a cross between Sandbanks with some very posh housing around the bay and up on the hillside and Studland with the dunes along the beach although the tide goes out for a really long way. Chickened out and took the bus back as it was almost lunchtime and we wanted to spend sometime at the beach. Walked down to the beach after lunch which is about a five minute walk from the campsite and had a lovely swim in the safe, warm water of the bay. As there was a bit of a breeze we are having to be a bit more careful as it is so easy to burn here, the UV was up to over 12 today compared to around 5 to 6 in the UK on a very sunny day. Off to Picton tomorrow to overnight before we catch the Interislander ferry on Thursday.