So goodbye to John & Rosemary, who seem to think I've come out just for the Wedding. A welcome pretext I assure you, then more fuel (baby only has a 35l tank) and off to Wellington for the ferry. Which is a bit of a problem since I completely blank the one route south from PN and wind up wiggling north-east then south until after 25 unnecessary km I find myself on the south side of the university. Still, the road south is straight and largely rural, so what was billed as a two hour trip turns out to be one, despite 30 minutes of faffing.
It occurs to me as I queue up that I have never before taken a car onto a ferry, though it's a typically kiwi ferry, managed very efficiently, but sightly shabby. Second hand, too small to be competitive in European waters?
Grotty café, pie & chips, but most of the trip on the foredeck admiring Wellington and especially Queen Charlotte Sound as we come into Picton. Remind me to find out who Queen Charlotte was. Mrs George III?
Still QCS is stunningly lovely. Wellington looks pretty good as well. May move there when I win the lottery. Actually not as stupid a thing to think as it might sound. The price of property round here seems insanely cheap by UK standards. In PN the were estate agents offering palatial 5 bedrooms in 5.4 hectare hillsides for roughly what my grotty end terrace would have been worth before the bubble burst.
After disembarking go in search of dive shop, for coming trip. Do find it, though it being Sunday afternoon it's shut. Must email them to establish exactly when I'm expected. Nothing much more to do in Picton, so head south through increasingly lovely countryside to Kaikoura, marine mammal capital of New Zealand. Backpackers picked pretty much at random from Lonely Planet turns out to be very nice indeed. Packet pasta for supper.
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