North Island

---

---

Marlborough Sounds, Interislander Ferry, and Wellington
December 5, 2008

Joe was busy early this morning helping the Havelock women lug boxes of junk for a charity garage sale. He saw they needed help as we walked out of the bakery after our coffee and muffin. We really like this little town. It would be a great place to keep a boat to explore the Marlborough Sounds. I don’t think a boater would ever run out of inlets and coves to check out. The town has a wonderful harbor and I’m pretty sure there are more boats (some very nice ones) than there are people. The few businesses in town have some cute names…Soundz Interesting, Slip Inn, Mussel Inn. This is where Jack and Rose (the people we met in Karamea) live and we didn’t try to find them, but everybody we talked to knew them. Weren’t Jack and Rose the name of the lovers on the Titanic?

There was no problem getting gas, we were able to buy some from a little station 11 k. down the road. Whew!

We took our time getting to Picton by first taking one of the few roads that travel into the Sounds. We were surprised at how many people live tucked away on these winding roads. In Havelock or Picton you can arrange to ride on the “mail boat” for a day to deliver the mail to all the isolated homes in the Sounds. We wish we had done that.
The Sounds are just beautiful and just like almost everyplace else we’ve been in NZ, we wish we had a week in the area instead of just a couple of days.

Picton is also a lovely town, seems to cater to the ferry passengers with lots of touristy shops and more NZ adventure thrills. Since we are relocating the van, our ferry fares were paid for by the relocation company… helped the old travel budget. The ferry left Picton at 1:15 and we arrived in Wellington on the North Island three hours later. This gave us some time to explore Wellington. It’s an interesting hilly city with a lot of Victorian style homes. We drove to the Cable Car Museum and watched the famous cable car go up and down the hill.

We are staying in a real hotel room tonight. Just seemed like a good thing to do. It’s a very nice hotel up on a hill in the northern part of town. But…we complained that we had to take turns in the bathroom. Don’t have to do that in a caravan park!

---

Photos

Tui
Joe nailed this photo, I think. The Tui is a tough bird to capture, it moves around so much

Timber Yard Near Picton
They don't call it lumber here.This is a big operation.

Edwin Fox
This is the 9th oldest boat in the world, stored in Picton Harbor.

The Ferry to North Island
This is the atrium on the ferry. It was a beautiful boat.

Wellington, North Island
This is the obligatory photo one takes in Wellington. You see some variation of this photo on every travel ad and calendar.