Off to Christchurch

Another friend I made while I lived in Korea now lives in Christchurch on the South Island of New Zealand. I made arrangements to go and visit her as well. I got up bright and early and headed down to the ferry terminal for the crossing from Wellington to the South Island. Once again, I was up early enough to be seeing the sunrise.

Then it was goodbye to the North Island for a couple of days as the ferry headed out of Wellington and across the Cook Strait to the South Island.

The South Island has spectacular scenery. Along the ferry route it's all coves and points and inlets and green. And the day was a really good one for the crossing. Despite the weather of the previous days, it was sunny and the seas were fairly calm.

I wasn't able to get clear photos of them, but I saw a few penguins swimming alongside the ferry. There were also lots of jellyfish. This is the second time I have done this ferry trip, the first being about 6 and a half years ago. It was amazing then and it was amazing this time. Arriving in Picton, the ferry sidled up past an area where timber is gathered for transport to wherever it goes next. I imagine that environmentalists and forest enthusiasts would not be pleased, which may be why it seemed a bit hidden in the next inlet over.

Picton is arranged up into the beginning hills leading from the small harbour area. It's a little town, but it has a bit of character. Unfortunately there is not much to do there while waiting for a bus out after arriving on the ferry.

I waited for my bus in the spot where it was supposed to show up. In time, it did so, but the driver had no record of me. Uh oh. He said he would call the office to find out if I was expected. I had only booked the trip with the ferry and the bus the night before, so is was possible that it all hadn't caught up to his list yet. And that is indeed what had happened. The dispatcher let him know that, yes, I was okay. And so it was off on the six hour bus ride down to Christchurch. Along the way we stopped at Kaikoura. I had been to Kaikoura on my last trip to New Zealand, years ago. I remembered it being a really nice place, very picturesque. It stayed so and I wished I had remembered that and had planned a day or so in the area. It's also where my mother got to go whale watching and got an awesome photo of a whale tail shedding water. I want one of those.