Wellington - in to the North Island

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Sunday 6th August 2006
We left Kaikoura and drove north towards Picton for our ferry crossing to Wellington in the North Island. We stopped off on the way for a little walk up to a waterfall, ten minutes from the beach. There we found five or six fur seal pups playing in the waterfall. There was a DOC (Department of Conservation) sign put up explaining that the mothers go out feeding all day while the pups come up here to play in safety. See the video here.

Finally got to Picton (after a quick food/wee stop in Blenhiem) and boarded a huge 10-deck ferry for the crossing. It is noramlly really scenic, but as it was raining and the cloud was close, I watched the De Vinci Code in the on-board cinema instead.

One strange thing, is that as you get the ferry from Picton in the South Island over to Wellington in the North Island, you actually head south! Picton is further north than Wellington! Good pub quiz knowledge there I thought! ;-)

We got to Wellington three hours later. It was very wet and miserable and getting late. So after a shower I went for one drink in the hostel (Base) basement bar and went to bed early. I had picked up a nasty cough and had to keep getting up in the night to make lemsip :-(

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