21.Oct.2016 Going North

It was an occasionally drizzly yet always scenic drive to the Picton Ferry this morning. This north end of the South Island seems to be a very nice area and Nelson is the largest city by far. It's in Marlborough wine country, so it has a lot going for it.

Just the everyday view between Nelson and Picton

Once on the boat, we found it to be roomier than last time, as this ship is not as full. The voyage is 3.5 hours each way, so the boats have kids play areas, cinemas,  cafes/restaurants all about, and this time the wifi seems to be working well. The odd part is that the ship was listing port (leaning to the left) from the time we got into the open water. Look out one set of windows: water; Look out the other set: sky. I thought maybe everyone was parked on that side, but a woman on staff says it is the wind. OK, that was a little unnerving until we got into Wellington harbor and the ship went back to even. Other than that (admittedly a bit of an issue today), it's a nice way to cross the straight. OK, my mood was buoyed by Virginia Tech playing (again) while I was on the ship and this time they beat their main rival, Miami.


Getting across and up to the hotel, it was just an exhausting drive today. The weekend traffic coming out of Wellington (slow enough to take the nice photo below), the 2-lane roads, the on-and-off drizzle, some things I saw in traffic, and wrapped up with some stress due to multiple fuel stations being closed because of a local holiday in the Hawke's Bay region ... it was just not ideal. Until we got to our hotel. Then it became ideal again.

Traffic is at a standstill, but the scenery is good

We're at a place called the Scenic Te Pania in Napier on Hawke's Bay. The staff were great, the city looks really nice, they pointed us next door to a very kid-friendly restaurant. We're right by some huge statue, a row of tall trees decked out to look like extremely premature Christmas trees, and we're across the street from the beach. You can never tell when booking online in a region you don't know, but I like what I see here.

 

Great service, not a fan of the pizza

Tomorrow and frankly the rest of the trip will have a lot less windshield time. We're taking our time in the AM, then going up to Rotorua, which is supposed to be sort of the Maori cultural hub in New Zealand. Aside from knowing that they are Polynesian relatives to Hawaiians (and noticing that many towns sound like Hawaiian towns), I have a lot to learn about Maori culture. So it should be cool and we'll see a Haka performance. Also, I understand that - much like Lake Taupo at the start of our trip - Rotorua is very volcanically active.