To the South Island

Hereby missing out most of the week we spent in the North Island.. On to the South!

You see I figure if I don’t catch up before I leave New Zealand, I may never get round to this at all, never mind actually remember what we did!

We got the InterIslander ferry to Picton from Wellington. We could have spent much more time in the North Island as it really shouldn’t be underestimated, especially the beaches (Papamoa - had a lovely swim there), the lakes (huge glittering Taupo) and even a waterfall (near Mount Ruapeho).

When the boat heads to Picton it navigates through the Marlborough Sound “an extensive network of sea-drowned valleys at the north end of the South Island of New Zealand” thanks Wikipedia! It looks amazing, dramatic and not quite entirely unlike Norway.

In Picton we didn’t do much except for having our first fish and chips.. which were wildly eclipsed by the ones we had the following night at Mapua. We drove past vineyard after vineyard to get to said Mapua but didn’t stop as the argument as to who would be the “designated driver” could have ended our marriage 😆

Arriving in Mapua we were a little underwhelmed by the campsite. A bit quiet as it’s still just before their peak season. We toyed with a wine and cycling tour but as I’m a bit of a lightweight and stuart can’t read a map it may not have ended well so settled for a mini tasting in a local bar.

Aware of our limited time we decided to leave the next day and head quite a bit further south.Read more