Holiday: Day 18 – North to South

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6.15am: Howdy, loyal reader! 😉. Today’s the day it all goes south! Destination Picton!

Missed a previous Post?
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Day 18 – Where are we?
(Saturday, 16th November)

9.45am: After checking out we had some time to kill. We grabbed a coffee, we spent some time looking around the shops in Wellington. For us, the most impressive was Whitcoulls. We’d not heard of them before, but their ground-floor here was absolutely rammed with books, plus toys and gifts upstairs! Clearly, there’s a big enough market here (and across NZ for reading books!). We learned that the business is a major New Zealand book, stationery, gift, games & toy retail chain. Formerly known as Whitcombe & Tombs, and has 54 stores nationally.

Bye-bye Wellington

11.05am: We said goodbye to Wellington and headed north-east for the short (10-minute) drive to the Ferry Terminal – next stop? Picton.

Today, we’re trying something we’ve not done before. Not content with using planes, trains, automobiles and boats, today we’re on a Car Ferry! 😯. Living the dream, ehh? It’s a big bugger too, at 179.93 m (590.3 ft) sporting 9 decks, it swallowed up its capacity of 525 cars with ease. Sadly, the good Ship Ferry Kaiārahia (Māori for “leader”) also has a track record of mechanical failures and other mishaps during its long service, so best NOT read its Wikipedia entry then!

(I bet you did!) 😉.

All Aboard! (Almost)

1.00pm: We arrived in the queue in good time, but 1pm came and went (unlike the Ferry). It was actually 1.45pm when we finally upped-anchor! 🫤. No reason given, but no matter, we’re on holiday with no deadlines! 👍

1.45pm: Once onboard, we joined the full complement of passengers – and everywhere was heaving. Sadly, by design, there were only enough seats for about half of us, but after grabbing a quick bite, we managed to find two in the Bar area. It was initially a rough crossing. The area known as Cook Strait (the water that separates North Island from the South Island and the strait that connects the Tasman Sea on the northwest with the South Pacific Ocean on the southeast) was particularly choppy where I scored it ‘7.4’ on the ‘vometer’. 🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢. So much so, that staff began appearing with trays containing icepacks and sick-bags for passengers to relieve their queasiness.

Approaching the South Island

Luckily, the vometer was only needed for about 30 minutes, and we were soon in calmer waters! 😉. The rest of the journey was very smooth, and we were soon chatting with a couple of locals and learning more about New Zealand.

As we got closer to our destination, most of the passengers disappeared on deck to catch a glimpse of the South Island as we approached Picton. It was certainly VERY picturesque and reminded us both of approaching Norway by sea.

4.30pm: 5.27pm: Given the later departure combined with the choppiness of the Strait, we arrived much later than anticipated in Picton. Even when we got back to the car, we sat there for ages before they let us off! 🫤🫤

Hello Picton

A quick call to Barry, owner of our next property, confirmed it was no problem, and as soon as we were off the Ferry, we took the short 10-minute drive to our next property – our very first ‘steps’ on the South Island of New Zealand. Does it feel different to its Northern cousin? Well, it’s probably a bit too early to say, but I’m sure it’s going to become obvious for the rest of our time here – stay tuned! 👍👍

Picton, with a population of just under 5000, is a town on the north coast of the South Island in New Zealand and is also known as ‘gateway to the islands and inlets of the Marlborough Sounds‘. Right now, the temperature was a cool 14℃, but the Sun was still out, and we could feel a chilly breeze coming off the water. Sunset was around 8pm.

Anchorage Lodge

5.38pm: Anchorage Lodge, in Rutland Street, will be our home for the next two nights. Check it out HERE! It’s a very well-appointed property and the owners live next door. Barry (the owner) gave us a thorough tour and told about all the best places to eat and visit. First job? Get the oven on for something to eat (good news! This one DIDN’T blow all the fuses when we switched it on!). This really is a LOVELY property! 👍👍

TODAY’S TRIVIA: New Zealand is actually made up of THREE main islands:
North Island, South Island, and Stewart Island

Tomorrow, we’re on the p*** on the wine-trail (again!) where we’re having Sunday Lunch at the famous Cloudy Bay Vineyards. It’ll take us around 30 minutes to get there by car, and we also want to fit in a walk around Picton town – see you tomorrow!!

💤💤💤💤💤💤