North to South

Well the predicted storm did in fact arrive and marked the end of the great weather we had been seeing. For the first time since our arrival in Auckland, it was very cloudy and frequently raining.

Our only aim of the day was to make it to Wellington in time to catch the "cheap ferry" as we had seen everything mum's lonely planet guide told us was worth while.

The ferry we wanted to catch, leaves only two times a day, 1pm and 3am...obviously we were after the afternoon trip...

We made it to Wellington around 11am so we even had some time to spare. After purchasing our bording passes we had lunch in the car park while we waited to board.

The boat was huge. There were semi-trailers that turned aroud whilst inside the boat.

After driving on ourselves, we headed upstairs to prepare for the 3 hour trip. I took the chance to explore the boat (few loung areas, big screen for movies, cafes and dining area, bar) even venturing outside to the various observation decks. It was really cold out there. Wellington is famous for its winds and now I know why, I had to hang on to everything I was wearing so it didn't blow off.

The trip was interesting. The weather as we crossed Cook Strait was so bad it took 4 hours instead of 3. The waves were huge and despite the size of the boat there was a fair amount of movement. Luckily, Tiff and Dad had their sea sickness tablets before boarding and even put band aids behind their ears (thanks nan) which seemed to work. We watched a couple of movies to fill in the time.

Then aroun 5pm we docked in Picton and started our travels on the south island.

We had heard that the weather was really bad so we decided to change our plans. The initial plan was to travel south of Picton to Christchurch then across the island (via Arthurs Pass) to Greymouth then down to Queenstown. We decided instead to head to Greymouth via the top of the island...however...in our search for a rest area to spend the night, we headed south (knowing we had to head into town (Blenheim) the next day either way) instead of west...and passed around some very high mountains and very steep tracks (Black Birch Range) which mum decided she didn't want to have to venture across again...so we stuck to the original plan and decided that we would head south to Christchurch...we stayed the night near "Blind River"