South to North

Usual timetable this morning. We had to reluctantly leave our luxury studio for an 8:30 departure. On the way, we picked up four brave souls who’d been up at 6:00 to jump out of aeroplanes. They were all in one piece and buzzing with excitement about their jumps.

The road follows the coast of Tasman Bay. The sky had very light cloud with lots of interesting patterns. After a couple of hours we arrived at Nelson, the sunniest city in New Zealand. We had two hours to explore and eat. First stop was DeVille cafe, we had a very tasty plate of eggs and haloumi cheese – and of course two flat whites.

Next stop was the Suter Art Gallery. It has two large rooms. The first was a general overview of work by local artists from the last 150 years or so, a couple of traditional straight landscapes and a number of more modern works. One had recreations of TV remote controls made out of local stone alongside traditional tools made from the same materials, the point being that the remote controls were obsolete so fast but the stone tools lasted much much longer.

The second was loosely themed around rivers, some semi-abstract photography, a video depicting the recreation of The Haywain and what looked like big slabs of local granite but were made of sponge.

We would have liked to stay longer at the gallery but didn’t have much time to check out the wool shop, the pharmacy, the book shop and buy some food for later.

Nelson is the home of Flying Kiwi – our tour company – so today we changed buses, guides and drivers. We only have the bus for this afternoon – fortunately – it’s the oldest they have and a bit basic. As we left Nelson, we said goodbye to our guide Magan, she has been replaced by Holly – a bundle of enthusiasm.

Next stop was Pelorus Bridge, the road crosses over a river gorge. The river is a rich green colour. We looked at it from the road bridge then walked down the side of the valley to the water.

Back on the road after half an hour, we headed for the Saint Clair Winery in Marlborough for a Flying Kiwi complementary tasting. We tasted five wines: a rose, two whites, a red and an option of a dessert or another red. I managed to sweet talk the host into letting me try both. For once the Pinot Noir wasn’t the winner and we left with a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc and a Malbec. The winery had 35 wines on their list, this made us a bit suspicious – definitely not sticking to one thing and doing it well. To be fair however they do grow their grapes all over the country and ship them back to Marlborough to make the wine. The food shop next door had some peanut butter laced with chilli and smoked paprika – this tasted amazing, I’ll definitely be trying to recreate it when we get home.

After the winery it was a short drive to Picton, the ferry port for our crossing to the North Island. On the way we passed through Havelock, this looks like an interesting town – lots of boats, cafes and museums. In Picton, we said goodbye to our bus driver, a few of our group and the old bus.

Picton has two main attractions, it’s location amongst the islands and inlets of Marlborough Sound and the museum built around the old wooden ship, the Edwin Fox. This ship, launched in 1854, has been round the world 34 times, carried convicts to Australia, immigrants to New Zealand and dairy products and fruit back to Europe. It is claimed it’s the 9th oldest ship in the world. We also came across some more of the Kiwi humour. We’ve been following Captain Cook across the Pacific, the place where he landed in New Zealand, Ship’s Bay, is in Marlborough Sound.

Our ferry sailed at 18:30 to make the three hour crossing to Wellington. There are up to eight sailings each way in the peak season. There are lots of cars and lorries on board as well as a container train.

The first part of the journey took us out through Marlborough sound, the route twists and turns around headlands and islands. After about an hour, we were into the Cook Straits that separate the two islands, these waters have been swum many times, the current record is 4h37. As night fell the water looked dark and menacing, a little reminiscent of some of our trips further south, to reinforce this impression a couple of albatross kept us company for a while.

We arrived in Wellington at 9:30. A shuttle took us to our hotel which must have been a grand place when it opened in the 1930s but now it’s a bit down at heel. It still has some interesting period features remaining though.