Nelson

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Next day we got the ferry over to the south island and headed to Blenheim hot on the trail of fruit picking work. We got told there was nothing around for a little while but there was loads of work up in the Nelson region around this time. We had intended to go there anyway to see the town and visit the national park so off we went.

We checked into a holiday park for the first time in a while so after showering off a few layers of dirt we had a look around town and made some inquiries about picking work. We found out there would be loads of work in a week or two when the season starts properly but until then there was nothing. This was starting to get annoying.

According to a fruit picking leaflet we had there weren’t any more places to get work until near Queenstown so we forgot about it until we got down that far and went and spent the next day on a stunning beach in Abel Tasman National Park. There were a series of little sand islands just past the main beach so we took our chairs, beach umbrella and football and waded through a channel to claim one for ourselves. Late afternoon we had to tear ourselves away in order to get out of the national park and find some free camping on the way to Westport.