Another well-overdue blog...at least I'm actually writing it!

Sailing across the Cook Strait was interesting - grey and miserable (still) on the North island side (it had actually been a nice day the day before), then getting to the sun in the Marlborough Sounds, which was a nice little trip on its own.

A new bus today - one of the small ones, so there's only about 15 of us this time. It was a whistle-stop tour on the way to Abel Tasman, starting with an extremely nice bakery in Picton, then half an hour in Nelson (cool and arty, and I would have like to have stayed there longer - maybe I'll go back for a couple of days at some point). And of course, as we were going through the Marlborough region, we had to stop off for a wine tasting...Marlit, Rik and I bought a couple of bottles to share for our stay at Abel Tasman, and we also stopped in on the fudge shop next door - run by a Lancashire woman...

Got to The Barn in the afternoon - accommodation for the next couple of nights. Really nice place, even though it was a bit chilly at night...

The next day I went sea kayaking - I was the only one who turned up there by themselves, so I got Brett (one of the guides) in the back of my double kayak. He and Jeremy were very cool and laid back, and the kayaking was fun. It was a bit too rough to paddle out to the islands, so we stayed along the shoreline, stopping a couple of times on some of the beaches. Brett and I had the most important kayak of course - the one with the coffee and biscuits in it! The weather was incredible - just like it looks on the tourist posters - the ones where you think, 'it's never that colour - must have been photoshopped!'. Nope - absolutely extraordinary!

The sail back was a bit on the 'brisk' side to say the least. We were motoring more than sailing as the wind was so strong. We did stop a few times to stretch our legs (hopping off into knee deep cold seawater each time), and to try some seal spotting (they're actually really hard to see on the rocks!), as well as getting the obligatory photos of split apple rock.

A very pleasant final evening - Rik, Marlit and I decided to use the outdoors kitchen as it was getting a bit crowded inside; it was sheltered enough to work out - and of course, we had the wine to finish off!