During our time in Nelson we went on the Cable Bay Track, walking over some green hills to the nice Cable Bay Beach. Together with our host Calum we also walked about half of the Abel Tasman Greatwalk (30km). For that we got a water taxi to Onetahuti (a bay in the nationalpark) in the morning and walked back to Marahau during the day. We had the perfect weather for hiking: some clouds but still warm enough to enjoy a swim in the ocean. The track followed the coastline and you had amazing lookouts over beaches and the sea. For lunch we took a break at the Cleopatra Pools and after a long day we enjoyed some Fish and Chips an the beach of Kaiteriteri for dinner. We spent the next day chilling at home and just went out for a walk on the beach with the dogs.

Saturday morning it was time to move on and we started in direction of Picton where the Ferry to Wellington would leave. Leaving Nelson we first had to climb a few hills before we could enjoy the nice ride along the scenic Queen Charlotte Drive along the Marlborough Sounds. In the end of the day we had a wonderful campsite in Aussie Bay just next to a little beach. We enjoyed the evening with some left over Spätzle and some wine.

It was still dark when we had to get up again as we wanted to take the ferry in Picton at 8am with the check-in starting at 7am. We still had around 15km and 300m of elevation to cycle, so we got up at 4:30am. The reward was a great sunrise over the Marlborough Sound just before arriving in Picton. We reached Picton in time and had our museli in the waiting hall. On the Ferry we could get the perfect place to sit with a really nice view, but most of the time we couldn't stay awake. In Wellington we were in touch with some WarmShowers hosts and Marilyn and Rodney even picked us up at the harbor because their house was all the way up on a hill and they did not want us to cycle there. At their house we had some soup before we went to the Zealandia together. Zealandia is a valley where they got rid of all foreign predators and consequently you can find a lot of birds and beautiful native wildlife.

We decided to stay in Wellington for three nights because we wanted to wait out the rainy Tuesday before moving on. On Monday we then went to the city and visited the Wellington Museum as well as the museum Te Papa. Te Papa was a really special museum with really interesting exhibitions about New Zealand and it was very nicely designed. After being kicked out of the museum by a fire alarm, we went for a walk along the coast to explore Wellington further.

In the morning of the next day we helped out with some gardening and just finished the work when it started to rain. That gave us some time to relax, catch up on our blog and videos and spend the rest of the day inside and chill.

All the best wishes from NZ,

Keep cycling and may you always have tailwind,

Vroni, Droni & Joni