Picton, arrived on the South Island

We have arrived and getting off the ferry was much faster than getting on. Since we were dog tired, we found a place where we could sleep standing up. When I woke up, Pascal was already gone and there were a ton of cars and people around me. We had parked in a parking lot from where you can hike some tracks and go fishing. And of course, nothing was happening when we arrived so early. Anyway, Pascal went on one of the tracks and when he came back, we got some breakfast. After that, we loaded things in the library and then we were off to Abel Tasman. Another track that we still want to hike, supposedly it's beautiful.

The next day, we walked a part of Queen Charlotte Sounds. The Queen Charlotte Sound is a sea inlet in the north of the South Island with access to the Tasman Sea. There are 6 islands in the sound itself. Even a couple of sunken ships lie on the bottom. In 1849, a ship mysteriously disappeared with 6 crew members. In 1986, a cruise ship sank after hitting a rock.

On that day, we only saw a few kayaks and speedboats. We walked through amazing fern forests, passing by stunning bays with crystal-clear water, until we reached a hill from where we could overlook the sound. Truly impressive!

After that, we found a place to sleep, which was a tavern's parking lot. So, you had to buy a menu there and then you could park for free. Sounded good at first! On the way there, we drove over a bridge and saw the water flowing underneath. It looked so tempting that we turned around and took a dip in the really cold water. Then we continued to the tavern, where we left the gas cooker cold and just ate and drank a beer there :) Quite a nice change!

The next day, we visited the beautiful small town of Nelson, which we will remember mainly because of its incredible beach. You could walk kilometers into the water and the best thing was, the water was really warm. I mean really warm! We haven't had that here so far, I could have spent hours in it, especially because it was really cold outside.