New Zealand Day 5 – Waitarere to Picton – Sprinkling the faerydust of life

It rained overnight but the room is quiet and we had a great sleep, followed by breakfast and then a walk along the beach before heading to Wellington. We were warned that the trip to Wellington can be slow, thanks to there only being the one road in to the city. We had plenty of time, though, and enjoyed our drive, part of which was right on the coast.

We didn’t need to drives right into the city centre and arrived at the Inter Islander ferry terminal in good time. We had to drop the car off and pick up a new one in Picton on the other side of the Cook Straight. Most of the car rental companies don’t allow you to take a car across to the other island and charge high fees if you do so. We’re flying out from Christchurch so we won’t be coming back to the North Island anyway.

The rain had all cleared so we had sunny skies and good weather for the trip. We did sit outside on the bow deck for a while, but it did get very windy once we’d gone out through the heads and past Cape Terawhiti. The view was pretty nice while we could still see land. Even after that it was still a nice view, but it was all water. The trip is about three hours and we were entertained on board by a group of school children of various ages and their teachers who’d been on a cultural exchange to the North Island. A few of the teachers and kids had guitars which they were great at playing. They played and sang for most of the trip. I’d been out on deck for a while at one stage and came back inside to discover a haka in process. Unfortunately I missed most of it!

Coming into Picton through the Queen Charlotte Sound was very pretty, but the closer we got to Picton, the darker the skies got and we were driven inside by cold winds and rain. By the time we arrived at Picton it was raining really heavily, so it was raincoats on while we went to get our car.

We’re staying in a very nice motel close to the harbour. The rain stopped for long enough for us to go and get something to eat but then it rained overnight. We did hear some fireworks; it’s Nov 5^th, Guy Fawkes night, and NZ celebrates with cracker night.