Day 20 Wednesday, September 15 -- Onward to the North Island


Synopsis

We got up early and drove to the west for about a half hour to see what we could see towards the town of Nelson. However, the fog prevented much of a view, so we headed back east to Picton via the Queens Charlotte Scenic Route, which offered great views of the sounds of the northern South Island. We said goodbye to the South Island and took our ferry to the North Island, arriving in Wellington, NZ’s capital city. We were immediately greeted by the stark contrast between the North and South Islands, entering a major metropolitan that was not found on the South Island (even in Christchurch, which was much more low-key). We toured around Wellington for the afternoon, then headed north towards east coast town of Napier to see a gannet colony. After finding out that the gannet colony was closed during this time of year, we changed course, ending up in Wanganui on the west coast.


Detailed Journal

We woke up, with the aid of our cell phones, at about 7am and decided to head towards Nelson before turning around and going back to Picton to catch our ferry. Lynette decided to check our voucher to make sure of the ferry departure time, which we thought was 11am for some reason. Turns out it was 10am and we were fairly luck that Jason had stopped were he did or we may have ended too far away from Picton to catch our ferry. We only had time to drive about 20 minutes towards Nelson, which was more or less of a waste of time since it was foggy most of the way. We headed to Picton, taking the Queen Charlotte Scenic Route. This route offered several great overlooks of the sounds that stretched all along the northern coast of the South Island. We arrived in Picton at about 915, only to find out that our ferry had been delayed by about an hour. We took the opportunity to change clothes and clean up the van, which had turned into quite the pie-hole. We went over to the vehicle check-in at about 10, and then continued cleaning up the van by sweeping the floor. With everything stowed away where it belonged and a fresh sweeping, the van looked much better. At about 10:45, they started hauling truck trailers onto the ferry and soon enough, we were driving over a bridge onto the ferry. We locked up and headed up onto the deck of the big ship. After a couple of flights of stairs, we were on the 4th deck, which was the main seating area. We explored around the vessel and decided that the best place to sit would be on the deck at the front of the boat. We sat on a park bench on the deck as we sailed out of the harbor, through the many hills that sprouted out of the sound.

We exited the sound via Tory Channel, a narrow channel defined by two lines of rocky features that sat a few meters apart off shore. As we exited the channel, the North Island came into view in front of us, and to our right, the impressive Kaikoura range on the South Island could easily be seen in the distance. It was a great view, but the cold wind had picked up quite a bit, so we headed inside to enjoy some hot chips (i.e. fries) and a Speight’s Original Ale. Speight’s is one of New Zealand’s two major breweries (Canterbury Draft is the other, with Monteiths being a subsidiary of CD). We found in Christchruch that we really liked Monteiths, so we were anxious to try Speights since it seemed to be the more advertised beer, but we were a bit disappointed. It tasted more like an American beer, not horrible, but not nearly as good as Monteiths. After about 45 minutes, we pulled into the Wellington harbor, past a couple of interesting looking lighthouses, and downtown Wellington unfolded before us. They called for us to return to our vehicles and within about 15 minutes, we were driving off the ferry.

We drove straight into downtown to drive past the parliamentary buildings, find the cable car and have a walk through the botanical garden. After getting lost in downtown for a few minutes, we found a parking lot and headed to the cable car. We walked through downtown for several blocks and experienced the hustle and bustle of the North Island immediately, a far cry from the laid-back pace of the South Island. We rode up the cable car and stepped into the Skyline Café, which only offered a limited selection of snacks, since their “lunch” was over. So, we went to a café downstairs and had a vegaterian cheese roll. We were a bit disappointed because we were hoping to enjoy some fish and chips in front of a nice overlook of downtown, neither of which we got. After eating, we headed across the way to the cable car museum, then back outside to get a photo of the cable car going back with downtown in the background below. We then walked down the path through the botanical garden, which offers a nice escape from town, right in the middle of town.

At the bottom of the botanical garden was a memorial containing “the preserved fires from the atomic holocaust at Hiroshima” and a peaceful waterfall. We then walked through a colonial cemetery. An uneasy fact about the cemetery was that when they built the city’s motorway, they had to exhume 3693 bodies, which were laid in a mass grave near by. They estimated that they would need to move 2000 bodies, but apparently there were a great deal of unmarked graves. At the end of the path, we found ourselves back in downtown, right next to parliament, which consisted of three buildings, one of which is affectionately known as “the beehive” (guess what it looks like). We played tourist and snapped a couple of pictures, then headed back to the van to get outta town. There’s plenty of “town” for us to see in L.A., so we were anxious to get on our way. We were a bit worried about heading out of town at that time because it was about 4:30 and we feared rush-hour traffic. Apparently Wellington rush-hour is nothing like L.A. rush-hour, although we were stopped in a minor, 10-minute jam due to construction closing down a lane.

We stopped at a fish-and-chips fast-food restaurant in one of the suburbs, which looked less fast-foody from the outside than it really was. We wanted to try true fish and chips and figured that Wellington probably had the most English heritage, but were a bit disappointed in this restaurant’s version. We decided that the fish-and-chips we got for $5 in Kaikoura were probably as good as we were going to get. We drove up highway 1 along the West Coast before heading towards Napier. On our way, Jason read that the gannet’s (giant birds) at Kidnapper’s Bay could only be viewed from October to April, which was one of the prime reasons for heading to Napier. We pulled over, re-examined our guide books and decided to scrap the idea of going to Napier and headed back towards the West Coast. We ended up in Wanginui at the Top 10 Holiday Park for the night. It was pretty late, so we quickly cashed in.


Pictures

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