North of the southern island

We left kaikoura Tuesday noon to have lunch just 30minutes North with views on a new Zealand seal colony, with lots of litlle ones. From their sea sanctuary, they "walk" up a river that brings you to a lovely litlle waterfall. It's an easy 15/20min walk so we did that with Mat on the manduca/baby carrier and Bill and Amélie walking up, carefully for not ennoying the seals, they really litteraly are just cm away, they cross the path, in and out of the litlle river. They look nice, they surely are, but when you see them fighting/playing, you do not want a bite of them!

It did for a great activity, fresh air, great nature, and off we went North, through (yep, without stopping... ) the famous (and beautiful!!) wine region of Marlborough right up to Nelson, the "big city" at the entrance of the Abel Tasman national parc to the North of Southern Island. 

Little camping, taking advantage of Nelson being a 'big' city to buy Matthias' new transportation system, a walk on nelsons huuuge and beautiful beach to test drive it, Matthias clearly felt at ease in it and is now our New Chief Commander (I will not tell who's job he took over.. Nor who's bossy character he inherited ....)

 I love the pic here with Bill pushing him around and Matt screaming "plus viiiiiite" as if pushing your bro on a Sandy beach was the easiest thing to do .. !

Then we slept on a vineyard on our way to Tasman parc, our second Okay2stay experience. This time Friendly Man is an English guy with mexican past who has put an hold on busy London live to come and work (hard) with his wife on their Riwaka River Estate. He escorted Pierre and our little van (3.3 high and 7.2 long....) and we got to park in between the vineyard and the olive trees.... Life can be hard! 

Lovely welcoming family - Amélie will not easily forget little friend Mackenzie's trampoline, cause she got stung by a bee.... Everyone who knows how Amelie can react (overreact?) on futilities AND everyone knowing how stupidly painful it can be (or bee ha-ha) , can imagine the level of screaming and crying that went through the peaceful vineyard ... Anyway, a great experience, and, as I'm writing, sipping from a verrrry good Chardonnay!

Next day we "rushed" to the 10:30 water taxi that brought us from the nearby Kaiteriteri Beach (said to be among the top I don't know how much nicest beaches in the world!) Right into the heart of the Abel Tasman national park. 

It is a not-to-miss thing in our travel guide, to kayak in the park. Small kids under 8. No go. So we opted for the water taxi that brings us in two stops to Anchorage, from where a 1 to 1,5 hours walk brings you to a viewpoint over the bays and the ocean. Beautiful!

A lot of people walk a 3 to 5 days trail in the park, which is named after the first European settler who set foot here. It is said to be new Zealand's smallest park, definitely with stunning views, created back in 1942! Voila, pour la petite histoire!

We spent the afternoon on the campinggrounds and beach ennoying à beautiful day and now that we have organised our next and last (!!!) few days of New Zealand, we might be crazy and wake up tomorrow at 5:45 to see the sun coming up again, before heading slowly but surely towards Auckland up North (on the other island) by Wednesday. The last few days are said to be wet and colder, so we are trying to get as much sun as we possible can!