It was an early start to Boxing Day for us. Annemarie’s friend, Taz, picked us up at 5am and dropped us off at the Interislander ferry for the first leg of our trip to the South Island. It was an absolutely gorgeous day for a ferry ride – no wind or clouds, which is amazing for Wellington and the Cook Strait. The Marlborough Sounds were incredibly beautiful, so we spent a lot of time outside soaking up the views, which made the 3 1/2 hour trip go very quickly. We did manage to get on the family Christmas Zoom call for a bit and say hi to everyone who was on.
The ferry dropped us off in Picton where we checked out the Edwin Fox, the 9th oldest boat in the world. It was the last one to bring immigrants to New Zealand and was also used as a convict ship. We were able to walk around inside it, see what the sleeping bunks were like, etc., I can’t imagine living in those conditions for months!
We had lunch and watched kids (and adults) get rides on the model train- it was so sweet. They also had mini sailboats you could sail in the pond. It only cost NZ20c (about US12c) to ride the train or sail a boat. I overheard a grandma say it was the same price 30 years ago when she used to bring her kids. It’s nice to know something hasn’t gotten more expensive. 😁
Soon we were on the bus to Nelson, which entailed going over windy mountain roads at a pretty fast clip! We made it to Nelson and had a little look around before heading to the place we are staying which has lots of kiwi art on the walls. Dinner was Sal’s New York pizza – we got pepperoni black garlic sauce which has to be one of the best pizzas I’ve ever had. I was very impressed.
After dinner we did our grocery shopping, kiwi music was playing and I was so happy when 6 months in a Leaky Boat by the Split Enz came on, it’s such a great song. We discovered that the buses pretty much stop running after 7 o’clock here and that only one Uber driver was working on Boxing Day in Nelson (it’s not a very big place!), so after a 20 minute wait he was able to give us a ride back home.
We ended the day watching another episode of New Zealand Taskmaster, it’s such a fun way to end the day watching that show. I am continually amazed at the creativity of the contestants on the show. By then we were ready for bed, it had been a long (and enjoyable!) day. Tomorrow is the Abel Tasman!!!