Across the Cook Strait

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This morning we stopped into the National Museum in Wellington. We spent three hours there but saw only a fraction of the exhibits. It is certainly the best museum we have seen in New Zealand. In addition to the ordinary exhibits that you would expect, the museum has an excellent outdoor exhibit featuring the main flora of New Zealand all in one compact area and there are several “discovery zones” for children, where the emphasis is hands on learning.

Among the highlights of this visit was the sheep shearing simulator. Every member of the family had a go at shearing a stuffed lamb with a bar coder. I am embarrassed to say that Adrianne took top honors, while I left my sheep a bloody mess. If only I had a tank top, I believe that I would have performed better. There are “heaps” of things to do and we will no doubt come back to take it in more fully.

After our abbreviated museum tour we headed over to the InterIslander ferry to the South Island. The journey was about 3 hours dock to dock. The views leaving Wellington and arriving in Picton (on South Island) were fabulous. We had an excellent day for sailing with relatively calm seas. Astrid had some motion sickness (or food poisoning we couldn’t be quite sure), but recovered on our drive to Nelson, one of the major cities on the South Island and well on our way to Reefton.

The drive from Picton to Nelson cuts through the mountains and here again we had some harried driving experiences, but marvelous vistas. Having come through the mountains we drove through some of Marlborough’s wine country. Unfortunately, we did not have time for a tasting tour, but I am certain that we will make time for it later during our stay here. We were able to have a great unoaked Chardonnay for dinner.

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Photos

Avery On Board
Avery hangs on next to the Muster Station, just in case.