Onto the South Island: Wellington to Picton Ferry Voyage

Since Winter is coming, we wanted to get to the South Island and see everything we could before winter set in too much. The only way to get The Van (Cliffjord) to the South Island is to take the Ferry, which leaves from Wellington and arrives in Picton. We ended up taking the ferry on a Monday morning so we spent the days leading up to our trip in Wellington. Wellington was a fun city and both Taylor and I seemed to like it better then Auckland.

The ferry ride took a total of 4 hours, with about 3.5 hours of this being actual travel time and the rest being docking at the port. Our ferry left at 8:30am and we had to be checked in, with the van, before 7:45am. This was our first time doing anything like this, so we arrived well before that to ensure we didn’t miss our ride and lose out on our $300 (NZD) ticket. Check in was painless and we waited in the van lined up with the other travelers. After a bit, we started to board. This process took a while but eventually we got to the front and drove right onto the boat. We parked the van, grabbed our stuff and headed upstairs to the various lounges, cafes, and viewing areas on the boat.

During the ride, we were free to roam the various areas of the boat. It had 10 levels, with the top four being where most of the passengers stayed. The boat had a movie theater which would have been cool if we weren’t so interested in sight seeing. The uppermost level was an open observation deck. This was pretty cool but also pretty cold, I unfortunately decided to wear shorts this day so it was extra fun. We were not be able to get back to the van once we took off (which we didn’t know before hand otherwise we would’ve brought food with us). Instead, we bought some fish and chips for lunch which was pretty good.

The ride took a while, but once we started making our into the sounds of the North Island it was very pretty. We were snaking our way through the sounds for at least an hour and moving pretty fast through a relatively narrow channel. Once we arrived, we were allowed back to the van and we waited about 10 minutes before it was our turn to leave. We drove right out the back of the boat so no backing-up or turning around was needed.

Once we arrived in Picton, we headed up the coast to our campsite, which was only 30 minutes away. Along the way we stopped at a beach and we found a ton of starfish. These were some weird looking ones and grossed me out, but Taylor went right in and picked a bunch of them up. That was a couple days ago and she seems fine, so I guess they don’t have a deadly sting or anything.