Wellington and on to the South Island

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23rd May 2009

After staying the night at Palmeston North, we continued our journey to Wellington. Entering Hutts Valley, the place our campsite was, Cyril was struggling to stay upright against the wind! The rain didn't make it any easier. On our arrival we booked our ferry across to the South Island, but were warned that it had been cancelled for the next day because of the huge storm swell. We decided to brave the weather and headed into the centre of Wellington. Once there, all the weather really allowed us to do was drink coffee and surf the internet. When we finally made our way back the weather seemed to get even worse and consequently we were half drowned walking from the bus to the campsite. Wind swept and wet we decided that cooking wasn't what we wanted to do so take-away was on the menu. We opted for chinese and it was a great remedy to the stormy weather that kept lashing against the campervan all night.

24th May 2009

Unfortunatley the weather didn't get any better overnight. Worried the ferry wouldn't leave tomorrow either we decided to check, which was fortunate on our part as they had booked us on the ultra early ferry at 3 am not 8 am, just as well we checked. Once everything was sorted we again braved the weather to see the Ta Papa museum. The museum was another good one with lots of interactive displays and even an embalmed colossal squid!! We even got to make our own computer squid check it out at http://squid.tepapa.govt.nz/build-a-squid/interactive and search under squid name Elal!


25th May 2009

Our 8 am ferry went ahead! The weather improved as the journey continued and we even got to see dolphins jumping over the waves our boat made, aren't we lucky, though maybe we shouldn't have paid to go dolphin watching the week before! We then made the 549 km trek to Franz Josef Village. Once out of Picton Elaine even did some of the driving (which she did expertly). 9 hours later we arrived at our destination a little tired but at least the views along the way kept us amused. Many people had told us that the South Island is more beautiful than the North, and we agree!

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