Sea-Legs

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Well I have spent 2weeks exploring the north island and have had an excellent time - in some ways I don't want to leave here - met loads of cool people, been to loads of exciting places and have taken part in great activities, been ferried around by a fab driver, Royal and generally had a good time. In the south Island I have got cold weather, sand flies and a 3hr ferry ride amongst other things to look forward to.

Anyway it has to be done - sure I will have a good time in the South aswell, I can wrap up warm, wear insect repellant and take take a few sea-legs pills and hope for the best on the ferry-ride.....

I have heard quite bad reports about the Wellington to Picton ferry. Between the two islands there is a perfect wind tunnel and often the ferry ride is pretty rough or even delayed for hours at a time. Images of the Bergen ferry are too vivid in my mind at this time....

Sorry Mum & Dad but I am afraid while I have been away I have (although I should probably not admit it here on the world-wide web) turned into a supplier of drugs - paracetamol, asprin, brufen, sea-legs, cough-mixture - I have been in possession and supplying the lot!! Not sure if it was the travel-sick tabs or the fairly smooth journey, but none of us were sick, thank goodness.

We were met by our new Kiwi driver Poncy (he tells us it is because of his fluffy purple pencil case!!) and taken to the next stop on the tour - Nelson. We stayed in a nice cosy hostel that filled us up with free home-made soup and a free brekkie, which is always a bonus. Not that much to do in this little town except walk to the top of a hill that claims to be the geographical centre of NZ, take a pic and watch the sunset - which would have been nicer with out the low-lying cloud but what else can I expect in Aotearoa ??

After stocking up on some Mountain Dew I played cards - presidents and assholes - a game which I am now starting to get the hang of. The caffine and E-numbers in my system are building up pretty quickly and I turned into a shaking mess I got annoyed when the game slowed down because of people chatting but could I get the cards out of my hands? I was physically shaking so much it was really difficult to co-ordinate myself!! For another night despite being really tired I was going to be awake half the nite - hyper on that luminous green juice. It all worked in my favour in the morning though - I was able to get up really early phone home and get get a shower, packed and ready out the door in record time!!

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Photos

Wellington - Picton Crossing
Thankgoodness it was a calm day!!