A Good End to the Day

Today we set off for the short journey to Wellington ferry terminal, filling up the tank of our hire car on the way. We have to leave this car at the terminal and pick up another one on the other side. Anyway that all went well and we soon found ourself on the Interislander ferry for Picton in South Island. As we got out of the sound into Cook Strait, the captain made an announcement to say that conditions were less than favourable. I was aware of that, I'd just returned to my seat after photographing one of the lighthouses and the boat was pitching so much it was difficult to walk. I sat down and concentrated on the horizon to get settled but it wasn't happening. The name of the ship was Arahura and that was pretty much the limit of my vocabulary for the next hour. I've done a variety of different ferry crossing in rough conditions, including the long crossing from Plymouth to Santander in a big sea and never been more than queasy (admittedly with drugs and bands on). I had no idea how awful real sea sickness is. I have to say that the staff on board stepped into action in a great way. One lady on bugle duty immediately gave me ice to suck and helped me out to a better position and attended me replacing filled bags until I finally stopped sweating and started feeling better. Marian has a real vomit phobia (although she's much better than she was) so I preferred her to keep out of it. This lovely lady kept her in touch with how I was doing (M popped out briefly on occasions too). So that's the big thing of the day. I'm much better now but it has left me feeling a bit wiped out. I can only put it down to the comparatively small size of this ship, it only takes about 600 passengers, whereas most of the ferries I've been on have been much larger and probably better stabilised.

We're staying near Nelson for the next three nights. This evening after getting a little bit to eat, we drove out for blip and ended up near a swamp (we'd call it a saltmarsh in UK). This is the sun going down with the mountains of Abel Tasman National Park (I think) looking very small in the background.

I hope you have a good day.

David