North to South

Not quite the equivalent of Michael Palin's Pole to Pole, we caught the ferry from Wellington on the North Island to Picton on the South Island. Our hosts prepared an early breakfast for us as we had to be in the ferry terminal by 7:30.

Drop the hire car off and walk on as foot passengers, ensconcing ourselves next to a window seat. Exploratory journeys were made about the boat, including onto the observation deck. This is reputedly one of the most scenic and beautiful ferry  journeys in the world. It takes about three and a half hours to go from the one Island to the other. 

Here's a map of the route the ferry takes.

The wind was blowing a gale so even though the sun was out it was too cold to stay out there for too long at a time. 

Eric made sure he read the safety drill and checked out where the lifeboats were.

Kept checking back on the observation deck as it looked like we might possibly see some interesting birds.

In fact we did see some tern, gannet, petrel plus a few others - but from the window - every time we tripped up to the observation deck to try and get some piccies, they were nowhere to be seen. Grrr!

Coming into Picton Harbour there were thousands of jellyfish around the boat. 

Disembark, wait for luggage and pick up next hire car.

Eric checking the colour of the new hire car. 

It's a Toyota Corolla - they said it was brown - a heated discussion ensued as to whether you could really call this brown. We'll leave you to decide. 

It's a long journey to our end point today, so we set off with no more ado.  We take the quickest route - the landscape was a pretty amazing mixture of mountains and sea for what was supposed to be the  'non-scenic' road. 

We negotiated one lot of bendy roads up and then down some mountains - then we had to cross the Takata mountain range - this was a little like the Applecross Pass in Scotland - only much higher (although it did have two-way traffic along the whole length). Zigzagging  up and down the mountain brought some incredible vistas.

Stopped at a cafe in Motueka for the ritual cappuccino and cake, which was exceptionally good for a gluten free offering.  We have to travel this route again on our way down to Kaikoura, so we may call in for a breakfast. 

Note their advertising. 

It may be correct but the use of inquiries for enquiries just looks wrong. Made me think some investigation of their food standards was being undertaken. 

We reach Colingwood and check in before a quick stroll on the beach. 

This is some stretch of beach, and we have it to ourselves.