Foul Point

We left Wellington having had a few nights sleep in a hotel with a real bed and some delicious dinners cooked by someone else, back in the van and back on the road, well sort of. Our time in the North Island has come to an end and we are heading off to the South Island. Anyone who knows some basic geography will realise its time to catch a ferry. Luckily the Cook Strait ferry leaves right from Wellington so we didn't have far to go. The arrival port on the south island is a tiny ocean town called Picton, I'm sure no one would go there if it wasn't for the ferry, it is located at the end of a stunning sound (similar to a fjord but created differently). The views as we were coming into dock were subliminal. South Island is already looking good.

As we got the late ferry we had to have a night on the road before our next destination, we found a little farm an hour away from the ferry port, a cute little camp spot which had fresh baked muffins on arrivals, food to feed the sheep, pigs and goat as well as a little forest walk up to a waterfall. Shame we couldn't stay here longer.

With a fair bit of driving to do so we hit the road early the following morning, stopped for a walk and lunch with Real Fruit Ice Cream for desert, Armelle made quite a mess but we unfortunately didn't get any pictures, we'll have to get some more.

Next day and we're walking the Abel Tasman Coastal Track. For those not up on their History Abel Tasman was a 1600's sailor who is credited with 'discovering' New Zealand. The trail named after him is suitably epic, a 60km 4 days walk from end to end it meanders along the golden beaches and lush coastal native bush of the North Island. We won't have time to do the whole thing so we are getting a boat to drop up a little way up and will be walking back to camp.

After completing the Tongariro Alpine Crossing we were suitably knackered but content in the knowledge we had done the longest day of walking (19km) we would have on this trip, how wrong we were, due to the tide times and bridges being closed we ended up this time walking just just over 28km! It had a very different feeling though as we did two stops to swim in amazing bays and the walk was not as steep. We were very happy with the experience and also happy to not have had any sunburn! Some in our campsite were not as diligent on the sun cream and it looked painful!Read more