We decided to see the south island before it got too cold so we booked two tickets for the bluebridge ferry and sailed across the Abel Tasman to the South Island. The journey took about 3 hours and was a bit smelly as the boat was often used as a freight to transport livestock. I had hoped to see dolphins swimming along beside us but no such luck :( We came In to the Marlborough Sounds and felt like we had finally entered Lord of the Rings country. Pine tree covered mountains surrounded us as the boat weaved in and out. We also decided to get a hire car during our time on the S. Island, its also our moving home! Its a Nissan Avenir Station wagon, to us its BLT.

We stopped in at a great charity shop in the seaside town of Picton, picked up Robert Fisk for a mere $6, great find by Mark. Its been our evening entertainment for the past week and a great substitute for TV. We started our journey west to Abel Tasman.

We spent friday morning as we spent the afternoon of thursday- scoping out Kaiteriteri camping ground, monitoring the shower area,which are for 'CAMPERS ONLY' .Our aim was to sneak in to use the hot water, though this meant passin the front office. We slipped in with ease,perhaps over acting slighlty by talking loudly about our 'caravan', but the need for a hot shower motivated this minor law breaking. Showers only cost 50 cents (about 25 p)an absolute bargain for 10 minutes of showering.

Anyway after our much needed shower we boarded aquataxi tour round Abel Tasman national park. The Abel Tasman in a national park located at the top of the south island, its peramatres were set in the 1940's ish despite some people who already had built their houses there, which meant a massive increse in their property value, the chap on the boat, the skipper in fact, said the value increase from about 30 grand to a million.sheesh. The 'aquataxi'(a speedboat with capacity of 15) dropped us off in the bays and beaches of the park and we then did a 3k ish walk back to a pick up point. The walk was great, complete with indiana jones style suspension bridges and views across the coastline. Apart from some pesky 'sand flies' giving us itchy bites to last a few days, the walk was a brilliant way to spend the day.