Bye Bye South Island

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I set off early to head north to Picton to catch the 1pm ferry to Wellington. The journey to the coast took me up into the hills again and then down through the clouds and the pine forests to Nelson. The coastline here is spectacular with many coves and beaches, and the amazing weather made it all look better!

As I headed towards Picton I took the windey coast road which gave an amazing view of the Marlborough Sound and the routes out to the Cook Strait. I arrived nice an early at the ferry port at 11.30am, half an hour before I needed to be there, so I was at the front of the queue. I sat in the car eating my lunch with the radio on but after 5 minutes disaster struck......my car battery spluttered and died!

A ferry worker was walking round handing out flyers about dealing with Didymo, a water based pest, they are trying to keep out of the North Island, so I asked him if they could help. I waited for a while but in the end the port manager arrived and started loading the cars in the adjacent queues to me before jump starting the car. So I had gone from the front of the queue to the back!

Once we had boarded I set up camp on the top deck so I could take in the views of the Marlborugh Sound as we headed out to the Strait. The view was very enjoyable but after a while the wind picked up and we were asked to go inside as the sea would be too choppy. As I don't enjoy rough seas too much I went down to the canteen deck I lay down on a seat and fell asleep for the rest of the journey.

At around 4ish we were asked to return to our cars so we could prepare for disembarking...in the end we didnt leave the ferry until 4.30. I was staying with a 5th cousin Megan Wade but she was still at Uni so I headed down to the harbour front. First I popped into a supermarket to buy some razors to remove my monstrosity of a beard, as I had some meetings arranged the next day! I then had a wonder around Te Papa, the maori museum, which I had visited 4 years previously but was still very interesting! I then had to wade my way through tons of runners along the harbour front to get back to my car!

I then headed over to Megan's student flat in Newtown, south of the city. Was great to finally meet her and get to know a relation of similar age! We grabbed some food from the supermarket and she made some spag bol for us while I went and shaved my beard in stages. We then watched some TV and blew up the air bed that would be my bed for the next two nights!

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