Day Twenty Two - Nelson to Wellington

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Originally uploaded by bpelley.

Today was another travel day. After doing our laundry and walking around Nelson a bit, we hit the road for the port town of Picton, on the the northernmost tip of the South Island. It was a pretty drive along the fingertip shores of the island. We stopped for another salami lunch at a pretty viewpoint.

One of the many things that you notice about New Zealand is the abundance of public spaces. Over 1/3 of the country is protected by the Department of Conservation (DOC) and although they have had their notable run ins with the Maori people over land rights, they seem to do a pretty good job of enabling people to enjoy the country's natural resources. The level of upkeep of these public spaces and trails has been amazing.

Piction is essentially a one-trick town where the interisland ferries dock, so apart from eating some decent ice cream, there wasn't a whole lot to do besides wait for the ferry. So we waited. After loading our campervan onto the boat, we made ourselves comfortable on the main deck where we picked out a nice game table. Bonney seems to have finally mastered Patrick's quick-exit rummy strategy. He will have to come up with a new trick.

The weather was beautiful for the first hour of the trip, but it suddenly got very foggy and pretty soon you couldn't see much at all. Thank you for radar and GPS! Our first sight of the North Island and Wellington was through the fog. We would have to wait until morning for a better look because after a 3 hour ferry ride, we had to quickly make our way to the campsite on the onskirts of town. Unfortunately, there are no campgrounds in the heart of Wellington. On the way, we drove on the first multi-lane highway we had seen since our arrival. There were even railguards on the roads! We could have used some of those back on those cliff-edge roads. The North Island is far more developed and populated. Being closer together, however, does not seem to affect the friendliness of New Zealanders. They seemed just as happy here as they did down South.

For more pictures from Day Twenty Two, click here.