For the first day of our holiday, we were looking forward to a bit of a sleep in – until we checked our times and realised we needed to be at the airport fairly early. We’d mostly packed last night so it was still a fairly leisurely morning.

We arrived at the airport in plenty of time and the plane wasn’t delayed. The flight down was mostly overcast but we got a good view of Nelson on the way in. Then it was a master of waiting for Liz and Mat to make the way to Nelson from Punakaiki. We enjoyed a pleasant, if somewhat overpriced, lunch at the cafe at Nelson airport while we waited.

Space in the car was at a premium with four adults and all their luggage but it was just 25 minutes to our AirBnB in Mapua, our home for the next week. The house was a three bedroom lockwood with plenty of room for us and a lovely view over the sea, Rabbit Island and the Richmond Range.

After we had unpacked, we walked down to Mapua Wharf and checked out the shops and restaurants. On the way back, we stopped off at the local Four Square supermarket to get supplies. A leisurely meal was the ideal chance to catch up with Mat and Liz’s adventures since we had last seen them six weeks earlier. The moon was rising as the first day of our South Island holiday came to an end.