Picton To Wellington

Journey To Picton

We were debating whether to go to Nelson, which was a further hour from the ferry and Picton and would require a return journey. Not really wanting to double back and figuring we didn't really have any time to do anything there anyway, we decided to drive from Kaikoura straight to Picton.

After the enjoyment of some authentic Fish n Chips (none of this frozen fish malarkey), the drive up to Picton was pretty straightforward and left a lot of the twisting roads behind. The scenery was nice as it took in a lot of the coast.

The first thing we did in Picton was have a drive about and to discover there wasn't much to the place. Fair enough though, we were only in the town for the night and catching the ferry across early afternoon so didn't have time for anything anyway. After locating a campsite in the town centre, we walked into town to have a browse around.

Despite being a Thursday, most places were shut or shutting and it was only 4pm. The places that were open were interesting enough and sold some nice things, but obviously erred on the expensive side being a ferry town. One interesting sight we did take in was "The Flying Haggis"; a Scottish themed pub which apparantly served Tennents on tap.

We weren't really intending on going in, but after seeing how lacklustre the place was, we ventured in and up to the bar. First good sign was that it wasn't as gimmicky as we had feared; the bar man (and we later found out owner) called Neil was indeed Scottish as was the other bar man. Casting a look around, the walls had a lot of proper Scottish things on it (including old football club tops) without being tacky. They even had Wee Red Books at the bar and it was good to hear Neil was an Aberdeen fan. We settled down at the bar itself and for the first time in years, I ordered a Tennents for the sake of it. We also noticed that Neil's pouring of Emma's vodka was very liberal.

We ended up in there until closing time gabbing away to Neil, a local Maori guy, the other bar man, and a Welsh-Kiwi couple who came in for the Belhaven on tap. It was a really fun night and Neil had been a hardcore traveller back in the day so we had a lot to talk about.

After leaving, a quick stop in the petrol station was on the cards to help out our stomachs before hitting the campervan bed.

Ferry Trip

There was a few hours to kill the next day before catching the ferry. Emma decided to get her hair conditioned in a hairdressers after leaving it to the elements for the past 10 months. We mistimed out ferry departure and ended up waiting at check in an hour too long. After boarding, we had some food on the rather large ferry before heading to the sun deck to catch the scenic views of Marlborough Sounds as the ferry left.

To kill time we ended up going to the cinema and saw What Happens In Vegas... Emma enjoyed it and by the time it finished, the ferry was almost in. After disembarking, we then had to use our navigational skills to get around the capital of New Zealand.

Wellington

It was rush hour as we hit the busy streets of Wellington. It was a completely different kettle of fish from Christchurch, Dunedin and Queenstown in terms of traffic and people. None of the campsites seemed to be centrally located either, although there was one nearby that didn't really make it clear if it offered powered sites. After driving up narrow streets and getting stuck on the biggest hill we'd ever driven on (the handbrake couldn't even stop the van from rolling back!), we discovered it didn't offer the powered sites so headed out on the motorway, via a detour by the airport, and ended up pulling into a pretty expensive camping site. By this point it was dark and we didn't care; hunger was knocking.

After having delicious chilli con carne nachos for dinner, we settled down and tried to figure out what was next. We only had a week in the North Island but only knew a couple of places we definitely wanted to go to. Weren't sure to spend a day in Wellington or not (we don't exactly have that much time) so in the end we opted on just playing it by ear and see how we felt the next day. Unplanned can be more fun, as long as we don't end up in another Rockhampton...

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