The Weekend & Ferry to Picton

The Weekend

We didn't do much on Saturday other than walk around the neighborhood and relax. The next door neighbors, Camille and Grant, phoned us in the afternoon and invited us over for drinks. We accepted, of course, and had a lovely visit with them in their beautiful gardens. They both work full time so this was the first chance we had to get together with them since we met them briefly on our arrival.

Sunday, after a leisurely breakfast, we drove to Petone, a suburb between here and Wellington. We walked along their beautiful waterfront on this bright and sunny day and then walked a couple of blocks to the main street and found a place to have a light lunch. After lunch, we visited their little museum on the waterfront called the Settler's Museum. It was a nice historical exhibit of the history of the area. On the way home, we stopped at the Pack 'n Save to pick up a few more groceries - John has sticker shock every time we go to the grocery store - quite a bit more expensive than Mexico - but probably about like the US.

I prepared a roast leg of lamb for dinner and it was delicious - the lamb is just unbelievable here.

Ferry to Picton - Monday

Our friendly neighbors, Camille and Grant, gave us a lift to the Interisland Ferry dock for which we were very grateful since we didn't want to drive there and weren't sure if the bus would get us there in time for our 7:55 a.m. check-in. We arrived just as passengers were boarding, and there were a lot of passengers including a mob of pre-teens from a school group. Our ship, the Kaitaki, was the newest in the fleet having been launched in 1997 in Holland. Its capacity was 1600 passengers and 900 cars. Once aboard we had a variety of choices of where to sit including a cafe, food court, bar, and numerous lounges on several decks - mostly indoors but you could walk around outside on the decks also. The weather was not the best as it was quite cloudy but it was not cold and there was no rain - yet. The voyage was three hours to Picton through Cook's Straights - connecting NZ's North and South Islands. These straights are often very windy and treacherous but our sailing was quite smooth and pleasant.

The hours passed quickly as we enjoyed a mochaccino, the passing scenery and the antics of the school children aboard who were virtually running wild while the teachers payed little attention to them.

In Picton we walked down the street to the Information Center to ask about the various tours available. The friendly agent, Annette, suggested the Mail Boat cruise. It sounded interesting so we signed up. Mail is delivered for the NZ Post by boat to the remote cottages and homes located in the bays of the Queen Charlotte Sound - Picton is located in this sound. After lunch of some sort of egg pie in a flaky pasty we boarded the boat with about 25 or 30 other passengers. The "Tiri Cat" was a very comfortable catamaran with inside and outside seating. Monday's route was the best as it ducked into numerous little coves to deliver the mail. The boat would pull up to the dock almost without stopping and hand over a bag of mail to whoever was waiting there, and taking their outgoing mail bag in exchange. At most docks, a dog would accompany their master and the skipper would hand him/her a dog biscuit. As we passed one dock whose delivery was on a different day, the skipper noted that "George" was waiting at the dock for the mail boat and he knew that he was home alone. He said that he would stop on the way back to give George his biscuit. So, later, he pulled towards the dock honking the boat horn and soon George was running down from the house to the pier as fast as his little Jack Russell legs would carry him. George was delighted to receive his treat and really didn't seem to mind that there was no mail.

Some of the stops were private homes and some were guest cottages and a few were small resort hotels. All were very remote and surrounded by wilderness. At the farthest point out we pulled in at Ship Cove - named by Capt. James Cook who also named the Queen Charlotte Sound. He made numerous visits to the area in the 1700's to study the wildlife and the southern skies. He made several stops at Ship Cove and there is a memorial to him at this beach.

Our mail cruise lasted about 4 hours and we enjoyed every minute of it. In one spot we encountered a large number of bottlenose dolphins and the skipper stopped for quite a while so we could enjoy their cavorting and leaping all around us.

Upon our arrival at Picton the skipper very kindly dropped us off right at the ferry pier and we were just in time to check in for our journey back to Wellington, this time on the Antere - one of the other ships. This one was older and smaller than the Kaitaki but very comfortable and we had great lounge chairs right at the front of the ship with big glass windows so the view was great. The last hour was in darkness and it was wonderful to cruise into Wellington harbor with all the lights of the city and suburbs surrounding us. We managed to negotiate our way to a bus stop and got home around 10:20 p.m. No rain yet so we were quite pleased with our ferry adventure to the South Island.

It's now Tuesday morning and the rains came last night and while it has stopped this morning, it's quite overcast and a good day to relax at "home". I'm just reflecting on one of the many advantages it is to do home exchanges as compared to being in a hotel room on a rainy day.

I've posted pictures of yesterday's trip so be sure to check them out. The link is at the top of the blog.