Once again getting up early to catch the ferry from Wellington to Picton, as we had to leave the North Island to spend a few more days on the South Island. We wanted to save money, so we decided not to take the bus from the hostel to the ferry terminal and walked instead... a mistake, as the bus would have only cost 1 NZD more than the one to the main terminal. We spent the journey sleeping and watching football. Now just 3 hours of bus rides left until we would arrive in Marahau at the foot of Abel Tasman.
Since we only had one day, we took a water taxi at 9 o'clock that dropped us off halfway. We then hiked the way back, 27 km, with some breaks to swim in pools, to take the Low Tide path from Bark Bay to Torrent Bay at High Tide (put on swimming trunks, backpack on the head, and off through the water) just to save 1.5 hours.
Exhausted, we fell into bed after having spaghetti with vegetable tomato sauce. The next day, hitchhiking from Marahau to Motueka with a crazy Kiwi Mum who drove the route in record time (I need to pick up someone and have to be back in town in half an hour.... this will be a fast ride ehhhh safe trip). In the evening, we met our Swedish ladies again in Nelson and had a fun evening. But before that, we climbed a mountain because Emily, also from Sweden, whom we had already seen in various hostels, told us that we could see the tsunami that was supposed to hit NZ, well I didn't see anything.... Next stop, Franz Josef...
