North island

Day 37

Nelson - Picton - Wellington

After morning coffee we left to Picton, where we had to catch a ferry to Wellington. Bye bye south island!


On the way we stopped at Pelorus bridge, famos due to the crazy people who were trying to jump in the water from the bridge and actually killed themselves, due to the low water level.

There are two companies providing ferry service from Picton to Wellington: Interislander y Bluebridge. Interislander is famouse one, but the better one is Bluebridge since it has pier close to the city center and to the train station, while Interislander is stopping in the port and the only way to get to the city is shuttle bus.

We left the car at Picton since it is much cheaper to hire a new car in north island then take the car over the channel by ferry.

El Ferry trip took 3 hours and we have arrived to Wellington, but as usual with some adventures :-D

Somehow we have arrived to Picton terminal 1 hour before our boat and checked in our bags too early. So they put our bags together with the boat which was leaving before ours. The problem is they don't actually check your ticket time, it is not like in the airport, they just check in your bags and put on the first leaving boat.

Anyway, we have arrived and of course our bags were not together with other bags on our boat. We had to go to Departures and ask for the bags and finally we found them...but the shuttle bus to the center has already left and it was the last shuttle bus!

The only way to get to the city was taxi and fortunately we saw another couple who was in same situation as us. In the end we shared the taxi to railway station and practically paid same price as shuttle bus - but what a stress!!! :-D

Our hosts, Kirsten and Nick, were waiting for us with dinner - we had nice meal, with beers and wine and went to sleep. Tomorrow was weekend and we were going to the concert in the evening, together with our hosts! Hello Wellington! :-D