Indended post date: March 5th
So much has happened already. It feels like it was weeks ago the I left Vancouver.
When we left Auckland, we knew we had a long trip ahead of us, but I guess I didn't fully come to terms with the amount of time that we would spend in transit. An 11-hour overnight drive to the Wellington ferry terminal left us completely drained without a proper nights rest. That being said, it seems that town locals and transit operators are more than willing to help out younger travelers. From the end of our bus ride, we had a 2km walk to the to the InterIslander ferry dock,but when I asked our bus driver for directions, he told us to throw our bags back on board so that he could drive us there. Once we were given a little daylight at around 7:00am, we finally got our first real look at Wellington. From the terminal we could see many brightly coloured houses buils on steep hills, (some on stilts) nestled in thick forests of semi-tropical trees. It was a view that made me think of images that I had seen of cities on the Mediterranean.
After a 5-hour wait through the early morning, we finally borded our ferry, the Arahura. The ship was massive, but mediocre; looking about 5-10 years older that our own BC ferries. But as soon as we set sail it didn't matter wheat kind of vessel it was, because the ocean crossing was amazing. While there was heavy seas, the water was blue, the air was 25 degrees, and the scenery was beautiful. We even had a few pods of dolphins join along side! We spent almost the entirety of the 3-hour crossing our on the upper decks, just looking at the shore ...and laughing at the fellow tourists that obviously didn't have their sea legs under them. haha
*note*
By this time I should probably mention that I looked like the Unibomber, thanks to the sunburn that i sustained from my first day in Auckland. I had to cover up completely, including hood and sunglasses.
We then docked in the small town of Picton. My first thought: "We've landed in Mexico!" The mountains on either side of the town were coated in dense jungle and dotted with palm trees. After checking into our hostel and having a quick chat with the resident house keeper, (a man that lacked quite a few teeth, and had the persona of a local drunk) we went out to explore. Everywhere we went, we just discovered more of what seemed to be a stereotypical sleepy mexican town; pleanty of small shops on a short main street lined with palm trees, a quaint marina filled with fishing and tour boats, and seagulls constantly stalking you for scraps of food. The only familiar thing this town lacked was vendors trying to push goods at you.
Before the end of the day, we decided to go for a quick hike along a trail that first skirted the endges of Picton's main bay, and then rose up the mounatinside to viewpoints along one of the taller ridges in the area. The majority of the hike was through lush forest that was full of crickets that chirped and hissed so loudly that we almost had to yell just so we could hear each other talk. At an intersection in the trail, we decided to branch off early and make our way back to the hostel through a a quiet residential area of town that Courtney said looked like it was transplanted straight out of rural Hawaii. I have to say that I absolutely love this town, and I'm looking forward to returning to it on our eventual trip back up to the North Island.
Thats all I have time to write for this evening before I go to make dinner (yay spaghetti!) but I'll be sure to find more time soon!
Cheers till then!
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