Day 40 - Crossing the Cook Strait to Wellington, North Island, New Zealand

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Saturday December 28th, 2013. Crossing the Cook Strait to Wellington, North Island, New Zealand

Woke up this morning and it was chucking it down. We checked out of the YH and then went into town for breakfast in one of the cafes. A couple of cheese and bacon toasties - lovely. Our ferry was at 1.10 but we had to check in at the latest at 12 noon. We had a few hours to kill so we went for a drive down the main highway 1 in the other direction to see some new stuff. Then we turned up at the ferry terminal only to be told that the boat was late and that we needed to come back at 1.45.

It was still raining so we decided to go to Picton Aquarium (as it was inside). EcoWorld Picton Aquarium is home to many different fish species from the Marlborough Sounds, as well as Little Blue Penguins, Mystical Seahorses, Ancient Tuatara, Giant Weta, Lizards, Turtles and Kakariki. We arrived just before feeding time so we paid and were taken straight inside to watch the feeding of the "small fish" which included some small sharks. There was also a tank full of large fish including Blue Cod (which we ate last night) and a huge ray fish which are plentiful in Picton Harbour.

After he had fed the fish the keeper went and collected two Blue Penguins which he released into the tank full of small fish. This was so they could have a couple of hours swimming practice. They are due to be released back in to the wild in a couple of weeks time. We tried to take some pictures but had the same problem as we had with the dolphins yesterday - they moved too fast and the light was very bad. It was great watching them though - and you could really see how blue they were. We continued walking around and found the touch tanks which contained star fish and anenomies which you were allowed to touch (gently). There were tanks of sea-horses and abeloni.

After we left the aquarium section we came to another part of the building containing native birds and reptiles. Most of the birds we had seen before but the reptiles were another story. The aquarium housed exhibits of the two types of Tuatara. Known as living fossils, Tuatara are reptiles which look like lizards.However, they are the only surviving member of an order of reptiles which flourished over 200 million years ago. There are only 2 species left and both are endemic to NZ. Tuatara are also unusual because they have a third 'eye'. They have two normal eyes. The third eye is on top of their head, in between their other eyes. It does not see like a normal eye. The parietal eye, as it is called, is only visible in hatchlings. The function of the parietal eye is unknown. Tuataras do not have ears, but they can hear. They have a number of unique features in their skeleton (bones), some of them shared through common descent with fish. Unlike lizards they have no eardrums or external male sexual organ. So all in all another weird and wonderful beasty for M to fall in love with. Tuatura were the first NZ native species to be protected by law. They once lived on
the mainland but are now restricted to 32 offshore, rat free, islands. These islands have a no landing policy so that rats cannot run down gang planks or ropes from boats.

After the aquarium we went to catch the boat. The crossing took 3 hours. We cruised down QCS again, taking a slightly different route around one of the larger islands than we did last night and then entered the Cook Strait. No dolphins today though as we couldn't even go outside because of the weather. We settled for a bottle of wine to while away the trip.

We found the Wellington YH no problem - but the same issue again - absolutely no parking. We could drop off though which was good. The nearest free parking was a good way away. The supermarket was just over the road though. The weather is better over this side of the Cook Strait but not great so we daren't do the laundry in case we can't get it dry. D went for a wander round the city in the drizzle, M stayed indoors. Let's hope the weather is better tomorrow.

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