North Island to South Island

After leaving New Plymouth, I headed down the surf highway. After almost piling up the rental a few times trying to avoid people passing on hills or curves, I got back onto the main road into Wellington. It isn't so much a main road as we imaging back home, there isn't any 2 lane highways going on except on the expressway through major cities. It is the main highway, simply because they label it #1. In Wellington, I didn't know the ferry times, but figured the sooner I got there the better, so as not to get onto the South Island too late.

When I arrived in Wellington, I could already see that I was going to regret not having spent any time there. It's a city carved out of the mountains, right on the water's edge. I didn't get to see much of it, but from what I saw it looked great. Instead, I followed the (few) signs pointing to the ferry terminals and headed there. A few wrong turns and a few guesses, and I was in the right spot. I then had to go buy a ticket, and found that the ferry ticket was about the same cost as a flight from Auckland to Christchurch. Awesome. Walked back to my car and soon, the check in gate opened, where they let me know.......the ferry is running late. So, after a bunch of sitting around, it arrived, and we headed out from the port at about 7:15 p.m. The entire journey was then in the dark, so there wasn't much to look at.

I arrived in Picton and managed to find my way to the hostel by about 10:30 p.m., and pretty much went straight to bed.