Between Islands

Today we went from the North Island to the South Island.  Such a beautiful ferry ride across Cook Strait.  Captain Cook was such a predominant figure in the south Pacific.  I think he eventually died in Hawaii, but he was everywhere down here.  However, he was not the first European to discover New Zealand...it was Abel Tasman (that devil).

We had an early start to the day.  We had to have our car delivered back to Hertz, and check-in at the ferry terminal by 8:15.  Success!

This was our boat, part of the Interislander business.

 
This was the name of our boat, and the smokestack from on our boat - with some of the cars/trucks on board.



The ferry crossing was 3-1/2 hours, arriving in Picton at 12:30 pm.  There really is not very much open water.  The strait isn't that wide, but the ferry goes down the strait for a piece before cutting among the many islands making up the entry to the South Island.

The line through the middle is our route, starting on the right from Wellington, inside that bay that looks like a hook.

Our first sighting of the South Island mountains in the distance.



One of the scenes of many gorgeous ones on the way.

I can't believe the captain backed the ship into the left-hand portion of this pier.  He sure couldn't have been driving on the left!  This is Picton, by the way.



Gerard collected our luggage while I went to Hertz and got another car.  We drove a short distance to our stop for the night near Blenheim.  The Marlborough Bed & Breakfast is absolutely beautiful.  It's in the country, and surrounded by flowering bushes.  Our hostess met us when we arrived, and she greeted us with her 2 dogs (Paddy and ???).  Very loveable dogs.  I wish we could spend 3-4 days here, it's so nice.

That's our car, by the way.  It's identical to the one we had on the North Island, except for the colour.

Marlborough (like a County) is the most famous of New Zealand's wine territory.  Tons of wineries here.  We noticed the hills to the east of Blenheim were dry-looking, very different from everywhere else, and very conducive to growing grapes.  We headed into town to pick up a few things and have some lunch.

We were hoping to head out for a bit of a hike, but it really cooled off late this afternoon and the wind is not dying down.

I'm a little wind-blown here, but wandering around the yard, enjoying a glass of wine. 

The cow next to us was very happy to see us.  The other one didn't really care and couldn't be bothered to get up.