Wellington/ Picton

We had a late start to leave Tongariro after yesterday's hike. Although the drive to Wellington is a bit over 3 and a half hours, it felt really quick, maybe because we had a big sleep the day before, or because we were so tired we were happy to sit in the van for hours! Our time in Wellington was extra short, by the time we arrived, the attractions we wanted to visit were closed, so instead we headed into the city to have a look and had dinner on the waterfront. On the way we stopped at Mt Victoria lookout to take in the views of the city. The drive up to the carpark was closed (sad face), so we had to park the van and walk up instead, which although quite short, was steep and just not really what we wanted while still sore from the Tongariro Crossing!

The city had a funky vibe and nice architecture, but oh boy the traffic! It was a bit much, even for a Sydneysider!

The next morning we got up nice and early and with plenty of time (or at least we thought so!) to catch the ferry to the South Island and the second leg of our New Zealand roadtrip. Wellington traffic let us down, and the short drive to the terminal took forever, but we still made it with a few minutes to spare.

The crossing on the ferry takes a bit over three hours, and there's restaurants and entertainment on board, plus the views of the Marlborough Sounds on the way in is amazing! We were lucky to have great weather (we really did for most of the trip), and even spotted some dolphins from the ferry! My stomach could not quite handle food on the ship, and Owen is more than happy with having lunch more than once, so when we got into Picton we stopped at the Picton Village Bakery for pies and then a second serving of sweets!

Time so say good bye to Picton and continue our way to Abel Tasman!