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Published: August 3rd 2008
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Well hello everyone. Jason here, and i know that once again there is several blogs for you to read. Two proper blogs and one containing all the videos of importance up to this point. Hope you are all well, we are doing great, still feeling the homesickness but we are getting by ok and enjoying it all as much as we can.
Well this is it, the day we move from Wellington in the North island to Picton in the South island. It has only been two weeks in the North Island but is feels like so much more, what with everything we have done. I am quite exhausted from it all, but not time to rest we still have two weeks in the South Island to go yet.
Saturday morning started the same as any other we got up and ready and then we tried to see if any of you lovely people had left us any comments, but unfortunately the internet room was still out in the top 10 park we were in so we retired back to the motorhome. We didn't have to be at the ferry til 1 at the latest, but we had to
leave the park by 10 or risk paying for another nights tariff. So we were somewhat baffled as to how we were going to fill the time. By now it was only about 9 in the morning (We have noticed that we are slowly getting ready quicker in the mornings) so i decided to sit and read my book and so did Elliott.
It got to around 9:45 before we decided to head off to the ferry port, we thought we could check in early then go for a wander somewhere. Its an easy drive and the place is only about 20 minutes from the camp. We get there at just gone 10 and follow the signs for the vehicle check in, only to discover that the check in doesn't start til 12 noon. Bollocks! With two hours to go we park the merc against a fence and get out for a look around. The scenery from here is quite impressive, looking across the bay at Wellington city centre. We take photos before returning back to the merc.
I basically spend the next two hours reading my book and stuffing my face with iced finger cakes, while Elliott,
being the more civilised of the two of us, just reads and that is all. He also gets freaked out by a tanker truck that keeps pulling up beside us, worried that it is gonna hit us. What a baby, i know it won't hit us...i think.
And it doesn't. As midday rolls around various other vehicles turn up and await the arrival of the check in attendant. Elliott and I are concerned that they all have paperwork, whereas we only have a booking number because the internet cafe we had used to make the booking had no way of printing off the confirmation. It is 12:15 before the window of the check in booth opens, and Elliott is relieved that the booking number is all we require. She gives us our boarding pass and tells us to drive to column D.
We join the queue at column D and then wait, and wait, and wait, and wait (i turn the engine off) and wait, and wait. I manage to finish my book and have a nap while we wait some more. FINALLY, the boat turns up and the current load drive off. Then it is our turn
to get on. We drive up the ramp and inside there is a massive turning area so that the vehicles point the right direction when it is time to drive off again.
After parking up Elliott and I head up the decks to the cafeteria and there i purchase a toasted cheese and pineapple sandwich, a chocolate caramel slice, a milkway bar and an apple. No idea what Elliott had i don't think it is important. We sit and munch our way through our little feast (although i have yet to eat the apple) before we head upstairs to say goodbye to the north island. Its cold outside so we go back inside and find a couple of seats. We sit and i get out my ipod and Elliott gets out his MP3 (both so sociable) i sit and read my new book while he reads his. I stop reading after about 45 minutes as i start to feel a little dizzy from the boat, so i close my eyes and doze off while listening to my ipod.
The trip takes about 3 hours. The views as we enter the south island are incredible, on both sides of
the boat are huge misty capped moutain like hills and green as far as the eye can see. We finally arrive in picton port at half 5 and promptly drive off in search of the top 10 park that is said to be close by. The weather has also worsened again and visibility drops considerably. I make a slight error here when i think i am approaching a roundabout when in fact it is a junction. I narrowly miss a lady in a car (wasn't going fast just didn't see her in the rain) she is maaaaaad, i only wish i could hear the obvious obscenities she is yelling out of her car window.
Quickly moving on from there we soon find the top 10 park and pay for one night. We park up and power up and head off to find the wash room to clean our dirty clothes. With that taken care of we start thinking about dinner. Its soup again tonight, followed by rice pudding, yummy! The rest of the night is spent planning our drive to Kaikoura the following day and then more reading before lights out.
So not a lot really HAPPENED today
but it was still quite a momentus occasion, for us anyway. Again i hope you all enjoy reading the blogs and don't hesitate to leave comments or send us private messages, because we love to read them :-D Should hopefully be able to update the blog again soon, but as usual we can't guarantee that we will find a decent internet cafe. I will just say now that i have given up loading the video blogs as they didn't seem to be doing anythin so another time maybe.
Right i am off now to get fish and chips, and hopefully find Elliott a pizza as he is driving me nuts about his thing for pizzas. Speak to you all later, we both miss you all. Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
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justine
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After reading your blogs steve has decided to re-name you both Beavis and Butthead, you can decide yourselves which is which, glad to hear that you are getting over your homesickenss, Cant wait for you to get back the cat is driving us crazy at 3am in the morning bloody thing !!! really enjoying your blogs keep up the good work love mum and steve xxxx