Sunday 11 January After 5 nights at Marble Hills Retreat we’d finally run out of fresh water so we’d packed up the night before and woke early, dressed, brushed teeth with last remaining drops from the tank, made the bed then hit the road over the hill to Motueka by 7.40am. Cool morning temperatures and popping the Pajero in 2WD meant we avoided the transmission over heating issues we experienced 5 days ago on the way in. Dropping down off the hill, with the orchards laid ou

Saturday 10 January It would be rude to spend this long in the Abel Tasman region without trying a bit of the famous walk - Abel Tasman Coastal Track is one of NZ’s 11 Great Walks and is a 60 km trail of golden beaches, forested headlands, and crystal-clear bays. The southern start or end is at Mārahau so after popping to Kaiteriteri for expensive essentials, we packed a picnic and togs and set off around midday from the official waharoa (entrance way) to walk about 3.5km to

Friday 9 January What a day! Started with a cheeky earthquake which shook Banjo at around 8.30am… Louis reckoned it was him stomping about but no, Geonet confirmed it, about 300km north of us at Waverley. We’d booked the 10.45 Coffee Cruise so grabbed our togs etc and dashed over to Kaiteriteri (which was already busy as and no free parking left) to hop on the big old green boat. Skipper Dave takes a max of 15 passengers on a gentle trip out to Split Apple Rock and back, with