Sailing to the South ......

We had set our alarm for 6am to make sure we were all up for the ferry. We had a quick brew and with no time for breakfast or a shower we were back heading for the ferry. About 10 minutes later we were checking in and parked up in Lane 1 behind the rest of the campervans.

The sunrise was amazing, so pink and the whole of the sky lit up. The water was flat calm, perfect weather conditions. Ben and Dad got some good photos whilst we were waiting to board.

At 8.15am we were (well Ben was!) driving onto Kaitaki, our Interislander ferry. We grabbed a banana and our waterproofs and climbed the stairs to Deck 8. We stood outside and then decided to have a wander up to the back of the boat. We found some seats in the lookout and waited for the off. Ben had a walk upstairs and found the sundeck. We all decided to walk up there instead. Then we were off leaving the North Island (for the time being!).

The views were amazing as we left Wellington. So many islands and it was really sunny. It was a wee bit chilly with the sea breeze so a brew was in order. We stood on top deck and enjoyed the sun on our faces. Wasn’t long before we hit the Cook Straight, nothing much to see yet so we headed indoors for some games of Dominos.

The crossing was so calm just a bit cold, we could live with that though (we got to wear our big hoodies!) We went back out on deck to watch the boat arrive in the South Island. The view totally different, so green. Little houses dotted in the middle of nowhere on the waters edge, beautiful!.

After 3 hours on the boat, we arrived into Picton, Ben again drove the van off the ferry and we parked up outside the local Danish Bakery. We bought our selection of pies and cakes and drove down to the waters edge, near the marina. The weather was gorg, so we sat on a picnic table soaking up the rays. We stuffed our faces and then had a walk around the town to walk it all off.
It’s a small town so it didn’t take long to browse the store. We filled up Eddie with diesel and then headed out to our next stop Nelson. The road out of Picton was amazing, pretty much water all round. The water turquoise and blue skys, it looked like the mountains went on forever.

We stopped at all the lookouts, as the views were so lovely. The roads were typical of the south, so windy but the camper managed them really well. We arrived at Nelson and it started raining ...... our second rain since Mam and Dad arrived. It was 4.30pm as we booked into the Tahuna Beach Holiday Park.

Kettle was put on straight away as the usual! We all sat down and chilled after the breathtaking day. Some awesome photos was taken by all. The best road I’ve ever been on, sp picturesque!!

We enjoyed some tea and played some cards and even cracked open the Port we’d bought as a treat for getting to the South Island.