ON THE FERRY TO PICTON, SOUTH ISLAND!

Day 339

Tuesday 5th February 2008

Picton, South Island - Kaikoura

Last night ended up being a really late night!!! It was 2am before i finally went to bed, after blogging on here and packing up the stuff we were to take on the Wellington to Picton Ferry.

We had to do the Big Discard because we were leaving our car at the Wellington Ferry terminal, and picking up a new car at the Picton Ferry Terminal. And so we had to carry all our belongings rather than leaving it all in the car!

And as it transpired, we had to leave the Thrifty Hire Car at a different Ferry Terminal to the one where we were actually boarding. We didn't know there were two Ferry Lines when we were booking our tickets, which we were told to book at least 3 days in advance! When we couldn't book our ferry tickets for Interisland Ferries (where the car was being dropped off) online, so we went with Bluebridge Ferries which had a online booking service..

And yes, they were not situated on the same terminal! Grrrr....anyway, it meant we had to catch a taxi to Bluebridge after we dropped the car off at Interisland Ferries! We could have just driven our hire car onto the ferry and caught the ferry over ourselves and retrieved our car at the other end..but...We did save $400 by doing it this way! (Just a pity about the confusion!)

So..before we left the hostel, we discarded, to our fellow hostellers, our Berlin Kettle (awww, that was our first big kitchen appliance overseas!) and my polysterene head pillow that has been a godsend since i bought that to sleep on long bus, train and flight journeys, three books and some NZ magazines that i didn't get around to swapping at the hostel swap library and a heap of food we did't eat and didn't want to carry with us on the ferry. Oh well. Share and share alike!

It was just as well we got to the Terminal 2 hours before sail time though, otherwise we wouldn't have made it to the other terminal! Gosh, we're such early bees these days....we really do get to places early....all because we don't want to miss our transport~~!! I hope this 'being at places early' continues when we get home! We've always been such late birds in the past!

The ferry finally left at 8am and we arrived in Picton at 11.18am. We watched two movies (Nancy Drew and No Reservations - again!) on the ferry...and it was just as well because it was too rocky and bumpy to be reading..and too cold to be outside admiring the views!!

We collected our car and after misplacing our paperwork they still gave it to us. What's wrong with us..we're being real airheads lately!! I think we've overtaxed ourselves with all the travel we've been doing to think straight really.....

But...onwards we charge!! (like a bull at a gate!)

We ate our fav, Subway, in gorgeous, quaint Picton and then headed off to Kaikoura via a few wineries. Notably the Montana Brancott Winery where the wines were so expensive we decided to pass up the offer of buying a few bottles...hehe The Tasting was great tho!!! Sauvignon Blanc here in NZ is to die for..........ohlala.

We certainly relaxed a bit after that, bought some veges and fruit from a roadside stall (these are in abundance in NZ and it's all so fresh, succulent and very delicoius, especially the stone fruits!) We also decided, at some point, we would hav a BBQ so we bought our provisions for that. An egg slice, some tongs and throwaway plastic plates and bowls. All we need is the steak..and with all the cows about, we're sure the taste will come close to Argentina!

What's this about NZ and Sheep??

It's COWS that we see everywhere!!!!

We also stocked up with cracked pepper, oil, balsamic vinegar and nuts.

That's one thing i love about camping. At every holiday park we've been to there has been a microwave oven, bbq's, boiling water either in a kettle or in a hot machine and there's always a laundry. The fact that we're sleeping in a tent that only has our bed is ok when there are good facilities in the park. We bought some camp cutlery for ourselves - one knife, one fork and one spoon - and have our vege grater, teaspoons and stainless steel cups we bought in Berlin and our pocket knife from Perth, so now we're practically set for camping!

And thinking about it..the facilities are better than staying a hotel! At least there is a kitchen and a fridge to cool the wine..................

And that is something we're going to do tomorrow..visit more wineries...and instead of buying wine in the supermarket (they do that here, as they do in Europe) we thought we'd select our dinner wine..at the winery we visit..

How decadent!

Got to have the wine when you're camping! :-)

We arrived in Kaikoura at 7pm...and we were very impressed by the park. So green and beautiful. South Island is colder than North Island. And it's greener and the little towns are really quaint and more british somehow.

Our camp bay at Beachside Holiday Park in Kaikoura was next to the little lake. We were in a tent area with about 5 other tents. One that matched our Baby Tent. The others were Tent Daddies! (Big 10 man tents). Some of the people we spoke to were camping in same area for more than one day so were pretty well settled, and very well equipped.

It didn't take us long to put up our little tent. We can do it in the dark!!! BLowing up the mattress, using our fan pump, from the car's 12 volt power supply is more of a challenge but we have that down pat too. We blow it up as much as we can to fit it into the tent, then blow the last bit up ourselves!

Battling our way through all our grocery bags is more of the problem!!! We don't have anything to put them in except the plastic bags so they're just sitting on the back seat of our car. Rummaging through our packs that are lodged in the back of boot of our little Corolla is a laugh too! It's cramped to say the very least!

We ate our dinner with the friendly park ducks wadding around us. Very cute.

We slept like BABIES!

Camping is becoming our new way of life.