Monday 31st December – The Cook straight ferry to the South Island for New Year

An early start for us – we had a 30-minute drive to the ferry terminal where we needed to arrive by 730am. We dropped off our foot passengers before Si and I rolled straight on to the ferry (right) and got some prime seating right by a window:



 

I was in great company....Trouble with kids these days.... too busy on their devices to enjoy their surroundings!

It was a cold grey morning in Wellington, we were all wearing trousers and wrapped up warm.  It was like we’d sailed to another country when we reached the other side of the Cook Straight. It transformed into a lovely sunny day on the Marlborough sounds.

Cloudy Wellington (above)...... and weaving through the Marlborough sounds in the sunshine (below)

A map of a section of the Marlborough Sounds... see how many islands there are.

Either petrels or shearwaters...?!

There were no whales or dolphins to be seen, but pretty scenery, plenty of birds for me to ogle and Picton itself was stunning in the sunshine.

Arriving into beautiful Picton

It was then a two-hour drive to reach Nelson and join the Edwards who were amazing hosts as usual. We all started drinking, had a few games of cards and a feast of a BBQ before getting a lift into Nelson for the New Year street party. The bars were rammed and extremely hot. Having done three rounds of drinks, Nick, Huihana and I were stuck queuing at the bar at the stroke of midnight trying to get the next lot in! But the 6 of us had an enjoyable night out.

Happy New Year 2019!!

We carried on the party by playing darts until 3am back at the house!

Thursday 27th to Sunday 30th December

We’d had to return from our Christmas festivities mostly so that I could get back to work. But I was working from home, so I guess it couldn’t be that bad.  In the meantime, Simon relaxed and tested out our new BBQ.

 

Giant-sized dog and sheep (below) made of corrugated iron

Sunday 30^th December – the drive to Wellington

More mileage around NZ – this time with four of us in the golf.  We picked up the Kellases and we each did approximately two hours driving each via Tirau, the home of all things made of corrugated metal;

Lake Taupo and some snow-capped mountains,

Lake Taupo, the largest lake in NZ

......to make it to Upper Hutt just outside Wellington where we had an AirBNB booked for the night.

The view of Upper Hutt from our AirBnB

Wellington lived up to its reputation as the ‘rainy capital’ (above).  But we were very pleased with our accommodation in a lovely house so we enjoyed playing some cards and having a drink for a change!

Wednesday 26th December – A sunny Boxing Day

A better day today, we could even see Mount Taranaki:

We all felt it was time to get out so we went out for a road trip in Colin to explore the local towns of Manaia (the bread capital don't ya know) and Hawera.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We then visited Huihana’s Uncle in his purple house with purple car and self-made V8 trike. What can I say, the man has good taste in colour!

Now that's a trike and a half

Back to the museum for lunch, it was then time for us to make our way back home via the surf highway with some epic coastal views:

View along the coast to the three sisters

I was enjoying the drive a little too much.  I got stopped by Police – for the 1^st time ever. Here, they can read your speed even when they are travelling TOWARDS you! Now that’s not fair… But it was a fair cop, I guess.  I was fined $120 and will have 20 demerit points put on my NZ license that doesn’t even exist yet! There is a complete zero tolerance approach to speeding here on the holidays. No 10% over limit allowed or anything.  I’ll remember that for next time.....