Exploring the Sounds of Marlborough

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Day 516 (26.08.08)

Since Jean and Mike were headed off on the mail boat cruise of the Pelorus Sounds today we thought we'd do our own tour of the sounds by jumping in the van and driving along the road that follows the rough path of the Queen Charlotte Walking Track. The weather was pretty terrible with mist and rain already settled in before we left.

We had mixed views of the sounds during our drive but what we did see of the small bays and inlets that make up the sounds was great. After a car picnic lunch we headed back to Havelock.

Day 517 (27.08.08)

All packed up we left Havelock early to drive further along the top of the South Island to make our way towards the Abel Tasman National Park. We stopped for a quick walk to the river at pelorus bridge enjoying the far better weather that we'd been given today and picked up a couple of wild pork and apple pies for lunch later on. We'd been recommended a road up another of the spits of land that make up the north coast so decided to take a detour as it was a stunning clear and sunny day.

After some tantalising glimpses out to sea on what was already a lovely road we stopped at Okiwi Bay where we found, to our joy, a large amount of oysters just sitting on the beach waiting for some hungry tourists to snap them up. After a few tastes of these delicious morsels we collected up a bagful for a starter that night - how posh!

Further along the road we found Elaine Bay where we had a picnic with lovely views of the little dock there and watched a mussel boat coming in from a morning's work.

Continuing further along the French Pass we moved onto an unsealed but easily drivable road for some of the most spectacular driving we've ever had. The scenery was incredible and we made a number of stops along the way to admire the views out to sea. We eventually and reluctantly had to turn around and make our way back to the main road as we wanted to make it to our next stop before nightfall.

We drove on through Nelson to a motor camp at Kaiteriteri on the very edge of the Abel Tasman and tucked into our oysters and dinner before settling down to some dice games and planning the next day's trip into the park.

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Comments

[Simon Murray]

Hello
Hi guys! Great to see you're getting on well, New Zealand looks beautiful. I've added some pics of our West Side Story, we missed you in the show. Be around for Sweeney Todd next year. Love you both x