North Island New Zealand

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We are now in the North Island having come across on the ferry today. However, before that we stopped in Picton on the South Island for 2 days. This is where the ferry goes from the South Island to the North Island and what a lovely place it is. We found a lovely campsite on the marina and yesterday we took a boat cruise all around the Marlborough Sounds. The trip we took was aboard the mail boat which is the only rural post delivery service in New Zealand by boat! The boats trip is about 6 hours and it takes you around to really remote places where people live which cannot be accessed by road! Quite amazing! The boat stopped about 6 times dropping off items such as live chickens, dog food, beer and eggs! It also collected items as well. Some of these people were living in tiny communities of about 4 people! We also stopped at Ship Cove which is where Captain Cook landed on New Zealand in 1770. It was a favourite place of Cook and he returned several times. You can understand why as it is just a paradise. There is a memorial there to commemorate his landings. It was one of the best days we have had. In addition to this, we saw Dolphins! The man who was driving the boat said we were very lucky as they are extremely rare. They are Hector Dolphins, the smallest breed in the world. There were about 10 of them playing around the boat - just magical!

We then came across on the ferry to North Island today on what must be one of the most picturesque ferry crossings in the world. We drove about 40 miles from Wellington and are now in Martinborough, the centre of the wine growing region.

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