A late start and no longer raining!
We had a quick breakfast in the van and then m the kids played on the trampoline while we got organised, refreshed the camper tanks and then got going by 11am.
We dropped into the Countdown supermarket in Blenheim to pick up supplies, as there won’t be any big towns for a while.
Onward with a 1 hour drive to Nelson national Park through Marlborough Wine Country. Just like on the photos with neat rows of vines in fields all along the road.
We arrived at the West Bay camp site on the shore of Lake Rotoiti and had a late lunch of cheese and coleslaw sandwiches sitting on the beach. (The coleslaw here is awesome, dressing, no mayo - delicious)
We found a good spot to camp and booked online, it turned out we had to collect our ticket from the visitors centre so we jumped back in the van and went to pick it up. 15 mins later we were back in our camping spot with ticket on display and ready to start walking.
The walking route we’d planned for the day was a 12km circular route around the closest mountain with good views of the lake. We made a start but the first part was on the road and not very pleasant with cars going past so we turned around and headed back to the path by the lake.
We walked for 10km in the end around the edge of the lake and back. Really beautiful clear water and a lovely well signed track through the shady forest.
There were lots of animal traps along the way, we assumed for some kind of pest. The kids were fascinated and checked each one for a catch.
We arrived back at the camper around 5:30pm and took a quick dip in the lake. The watch was quite cold and refreshing but the rocks made it difficult to walk into the water.
Afterwards we had appero at the camp site and bbq for dinner all the while trying to avoid the small biting sand flies.
We eventually gave up and ate dinner inside the camper followed by a game of life before bed.
We resolved to wake up earlier tomorrow ready for another day of walking.
Distance travelled today: 117km
Grand total: 1141km