The ferry docked in Picton, on the South Island, at just after midday on 17th March. We set off west towards the Abel Tasmin National Park – New Zealand’s smallest national park.

On route we stopped at Nelson which is the oldest city on the South island. It was first established in 1841 and proclaimed a city by Royal Charter in 1858. Nelson claims to be the geographical centre of New Zealand with the actual centre point conveniently located on top of Botanical Hill.

Which has great views over the city.

If you dig deeper, it turns out that the engineer assigned to the first official survey of the country (John Spence Browning) was the Chief Surveyor for Nelson and he chose the top of the hill as the base point for his survey. It wasn’t until 1962 that the correct centre point was established south west of Nelson.

Nelson also claims to be the location of the first rugby game in New Zealand. This is true and the game was introduced by the son of one of the City’s founders who has been educated in England. The match was played on 14th Mat 1870 on the Botanical Reserve

The ground was being prepared for a cricket match when we visited.

We spent the night in Motoeka and the following morning we headed off to the Abel Tasmin National Park (www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/places-to-go/nelson-tasman/places/abel-tasman-national-park). We walked the first part of the 60Km coast track – a 14Km section from Marahau to Anchorage.

I saw quite a few Fantails. They are very acrobatic birds that flitter all over the place catching live insects. The yellow box in the picture below is a Wasp trap. The non native species of Wasps (the German and Common Wasps) have no natural predator, They harm the bird and insect population and are considered a pest.

We approached Anchorage Bay from an excellent view point.

We had lunch in the bay.

After lunch we returned to Marahau under sail.

On the way back we passed some New Zealand Fur Seals basking on the rocks.

A yacht that rents out for US$240,000 per week. It does have a crew of 10 and bedrooms for up to 10 people.

Finally we passed the split apple rock.

We spent the night in Motoeka before heading south to Punakaiki.