Sunday 1st April 2018 leaving South Island and making for Wellington

After the usual 'packing routine, we departed our Monaco Resort Grand Mercure Hotel in Nelson. The hotel was very nice and comfortable although the room was quite small which, with all our stuff, made it a bit of a mess at most times!!

 We set off for Picton about 150 kms away where the ferry to North island departs. Our ferry was scheduled for 2.15 p.m.

 The drive was uneventful and the scenery was the wonderful green rolling hills, much of it covered with fir trees which we had seen all over the South Island. There were farms and a couple of small towns on the way. We had to traverse a couple of mountain ranges and the road was twisty on the way up and turny on the way down! But there was not too much traffic and there are overtaking places if you get stuck behind a camper or truck.

 We arrived at the small port of Picton at about noon after about a three hour drive. We quickly checked in for the ferry, left the car in line and went for a quick lunch at a nearby seafood restaurant called 'Cockles' Here we had a wonderful seafood chowder as well as fish and chips for MAC and what was described as 'whitebait' for me. When it came we thought they had mixed up the order as it turned out to be an omelet!! When we asked the waitress if she had made a mistake, she told us that was the way whitebait was served in New Zealand, who knew? I must say, I think I like my whitebait, the traditional way but it was OK.

 On the way back to the car we passed what used to be the rail station of Picton but is now used for scenic train rides with an old steam train.

 We got back to the car at 1 p.m. as ordered but it took quite a while for us to get on the ship which was the m.s. Kaitaki of the Inter-island Ferry Co.

 We drove on board and were soon parked up on Deck 5 and up to the passenger area. The ship sailed right on time and we watched the slow passage out of Picton Sound through the tree covered hills on either side. It being a holiday weekend, there were many boats, motor and sailing out on the water.

 We found a place in the lounge and settled in for the 3 3/4 hour trip over to Wellington. When we got out to sea, the ship moved very gently in the swell and MAC managed the movement well and actually managed to fall asleep.

 We went out to the upper deck for the arrival into Wellington but it proved too windy up there so we went down below again. After docking at Wellington at 5.30 p.m. we waited a while before we could rive off the ship but it was all very efficiently handled. the drive to our hotel, the Bolton was quite short.

 Check in at the hotel was very quick and painless and our magnificent room contained a living room and bedroom a full kitchen with stove top, oven, dishwasher, washer dryer and all sorts of other amenities.

 We had a reservation at a restaurant called Ortega's Fish Shack and took a cab there. We were seated in the upstairs room which was quieter than the bar and had a really outstanding meal there. This was the fish we had been looking for. House smoked salmon, grouper and a local fish which i cannot recall the name of, were all excellent and beautifully cooked. We also had an excellent bottle of New Zealand Carmenere wine.

 The restaurant called a taxi for our return to the hotel and after putting a load of washing into the machine, we retired to bed.

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