Uffda, finally have Internet for a bit.
On the ninth, Stephen and I loaded up his little red car, which is named "Trever", to start the EPIC ROAD TRIP! We have actually been planning this since before I bought my plane tickets. It started out as just joking around about road tripping around the north island, but then I thought, hey, why not make this actually happen? So it did.
We left Christchurch around 9:30, heading up state highway 1 towards Picton to catch our ferry. I've been up the east coast before when my friend Kaitlin and I took the train to Kaikora and Blenheim, and highway 1 runs a similar course as the railway. However, this time we had the option to stop and take pictures at will. The east coast is beautiful, rolling green hills, white-topped mountains in the distance, ocean to the side. Mmmhmm, this is Anna's happy place.
Despite my unwillingness to leave the Kaikora area, we managed to get to Picton early. We snagged lunch in the park with everyone else who was waiting (really, there's nothing else to do in the little town), and wandered the shops for a bit. Picton is a tiny little town nestled among green hills(by stephen's definition, mountains for this Minnesota girl), that seems to solely exist for the two ferry companies to shuttle people,cars, trucks and trains to and from the north island. I mentioned trains because we actually parked Trever on the train deck right on the tracks. I didn't realize it was common to transport trains by ship, but I guess it must be.
After getting Trever all secure, we were ushered up to the passenger decks for the 3 1/2 hour journey. I spent the first hour out on deck soaking in the scenery. The ship must weave through the fjords before getting to the ocean. Though chilly, we had perfect sunny weather. It.was.beautiful. My descriptions won't do it justice, so you will have to wait until I am able to upload pictures. After we cleared land, Stephen and I went below and took a brief nap. Unfortunately we were part of a rare sailings that got chosen to practice fire drills with. While we didn't have to do anything, the ringing alarm bells and running crew members did not make for a restful journey.
We made it to Wellington just as the sun was setting. After off loading Trever, we set it along the Wellington coast line. Wellington is a rather large city by New Zealand standards, but it is dispersed through hills and along the coast making it seem much smaller than it actually is. Stephen shared with me that the initial settlers had bought the land sit-unseen in England and were quite dismayed by the land and how it looked like it would be impossible to build dwellings on. But they managed it, and now it is the capital. Stephen and I stopped at a fondue restaurant that a friend had recommended, we had smoked cheddar and chocolate. Mmmm, delicious. After dinner, we went for a walk along the beach and up through town. The Wellington nightlife was bustling. Despite it being winter, every restaurant had packed out door seating. Sadly, we did not have too much time to explore, we still had to get to I our next stop. On the way out we drove by (almost into) the "Beehive" which is their government building. It was much smaller than I expected, but I forget that they cannot build buildings very tall due to the earthquakes.
We drove over the kaitoke range to get to Masterton. The clear skies prevailed and I spent most of the trip looking up out my window wishing I knew Southern Hemisphere constellations. We stopped at a look out at the top and spent a long time just staring up. It will be interesting to see this drive during the day time, as I could not tell you anything that we passed.
We got to our friend Michael and his fiancée's house in Masterton late evening. After staying up late to catch up, it was time to hit the pillow.
Wow, looking back, I can't believe that was all in one day. It seems like it should have taken us a week just to get there.
No pictures again. Sorry, trying to respect Internet allowance.
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