Leaving the South Island...is hard to do

Last morning in Picton

Inside the Edwin Fox - the 9th oldest surviving ship in the world

Picton from the Edwin Fox

 

Goodbye to the South Island

 

 

Leaving the South Island is hard to do.

No, I mean it's REALLY hard to do!

Attempt 1...we got 1/2 hour into the journey and the ferry had to return to Picton because of severe weather in the Cook Strait.  So a whole day going nowhere (we got to the wharf at 11.30 for 1.00 loading and 2.00 sailing) except back to the paddock at Koromiko.

Attempt 2...2 days later...the 2.00 ferry left at 4.00 (not running to schedule just going back and forth trying to clear the backlog).  Lovely sunny day and flat sea.  Arrived in Wellington safely.

So...we have left the South Island after four months.  That's a season and a bit so no wonder it is much chillier now than when we arrived.  Nevertheless, the word is that the South Island had a much cooler and more unsettled summer than usual.  I've only ever lived in Northland and Auckland so I really didn't realise that the rest of the country had a cooler/colder climate in summer.  I think that we managed to get some good weather by flitting from area to area and it was definitely good in Nelson/ Golden Bay/Karamea before Christmas.

The places we've liked the best are (in no particular order):

·         Golden Bay - the scenery and the climate, walks and the little towns

·         Marlborough Sounds - the Abel Tasman and little out of the way places

·         Glenorchy - great scenery and walks, stunning mountains

·         The road to Milford Sound - amazing scenery

·         Banks Peninsula - lots of good scenery and places to go, the Little River Rail Trail

·         Central Otago - nice climate, the rail trails and little old gold mining settlements

·         Otago Peninsula - nice beaches

The places we want to explore more thoroughly or go back to another year are:

·         The West Coast/Haast Pass - lots of lakes, coast etc but you need good settled weather

·         Central Otago - so we can bike more on trails

But overall we feel like we've seen enough for now.  We have been up a lot of dirt roads/4WD tracks and explored.  We didn't do any fruit or grape picking but might do that another time.  Before we go back to the South Island there are things we need to do on the bus.  We definitely need insect screens for the west coast.  We knew that - and looked into it - but didn't do anything as its probably best organised from home.  Malcolm has a list of little things he wants to do but the bus has pretty much performed as hoped - after we sorted out the radiator problem which was probably just the regulator in the end!  Hopefully all continues well too.

So now we have the North Island ahead of us...