Gee, This Looks Familiar

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We pulled into Wellington Friday evening after a very long drive and left early the next morning for the ferry to the South Island so we don't have much to say unfortunately. J was horribly sick the entire time, so no pictures were taken, and only PowerAid was consumed. I wish we had more time to explore this lovely capital city! I will say that it really is windy in Wellington - every time I stepped outside, my hair was blown every-whichway! We agreed with locals that said it was like a small scale version of San Francisco.

The ferry ride to the South Island was about three and a half hours long, crowded, and way overpriced. You cannot take rental cars on the ferry - you must drop off your car in Wellington at the ferry terminal and pick up a new rental car in Picton. As a walk on, you don't have to lug all of your stuff onto the boat however. They have a baggage check system similar to airlines (and cruise lines). The first half of the crossing was rocky, with whitecaps and a biting wind. I wasn't feeling so hot sitting inside so went out on deck to get some air and was nearly blown away! The ferry had some odd amenities that presumably added a lot to the cost of the ticket, but not much value added to the journey. There was a small movie theater and a roving magician for the kids. The snack bar was packed and by the time we were ready for a little snack about 2/3 of the way across, they had run out of chips (fries). You'd think they could plan for the volume they needed for a 3.5 hour trip.

When the seas calmed down, we stepped out on deck to survey the scene. Did we step through a teleporter? It looked astonishingly like our own San Juan Islands of home! Islands of evergreen trees, rocky beaches, distant mountains...the only difference was the color of the water. At home, we have dark blue-green water; here the water was a gorgeous jade.

It wasn't until just before we pulled into Picton that we made a decision about how to tackle the South Island. It would be fun to check out the Abel Tasman in the NW with its sandy beaches, hiking, and kayaking. However, we were facing high season crowds and did not have advance reservations or camping gear. Therefore, we headed south along the east coast of the island, destined for Kaikoura.

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Comments

[angela]

lovely
oh i do wanna go to wellington because my friend lives there and we both do want to visit...it's just so far away! sucks that the ferry ride didn't seem that great.