Finally, after being in New Zealand for 10 months we have arrived in the South Island, A place completely different to the North and a place where Kiwis would say we’d love. They were right - here’s the story so far.

The 3 hour Inter-Islander ferry trip between the North and South was spectacular, after crossing the main body of water we weaved in and out the Queen Charlotte Sound luckily without any seasick passengers. Arriving in the small commuter town of Picton, we hurried off in search of Abel Tasman National Park, 3 hours away. The winding roads proved to be worth it for the coastal view and a quick stop in Nelson, a small town “Hailed as one of NZ’s most liveable cities” (as per the Lonely Planet). I can’t say that' I’d want to move there in a hurry but it was a lovely bustling little city, a good place to pick up the essentials for a roast dinner at our next stop – Orinico Cottage.

Our Bach for the next two nights was positioned on the outskirts of the Abel Tasman National Park, a cute 3 bedroomed cottage on a farm. It was definitely a home away from home with everything from books and games to a lovely dog called Tess.

The National Park offers lots of day walks as well as a number of longer options, all accessible by water taxi. We arrived just in time for the last taxi of the day to take us to the start of the walk, which gave the mums no time to panic at the thought of going out on the water. After another seasick free water adventure we started our walk from Torrent Bay to Bark Bay weaving between forest/jungle terrain to beach and coast line – absolutely stunning! The rain held off until we arrived at Bark Bay awaiting our water taxi return. Another water trip, passed some sleeping seals and we were back in the batch being cooked a lovely lamb roast dinner to warm us up – much better than our dinner the previous night (burnt sausage rolls and pizza.)

Up to now we had all our accommodation pre booked and left the next two days free to see how far we would get. We had a 12 hour drive down the west coast to Queenstown ahead of us to do over 3 days and on the way we aimed for Pancake Rocks, Greymouth, Hokitika, Franz Josef Glacier, Fox Glacier, Haast, Wanaka and Arrowtown before making it to Queenstown. All boxes ticked, and excellent accommodation found in Hokitika and Wanaka, the following piccies will explain the rest!