Our ferry boat from Wellington in the north island to Picton in the south island.	She's huge. Massive. Gigantic. We have never been this close to a ship this big before. A floating city.	The bow is open - 2 lanes wide to start loading the 18-wheeler and 24-wheeler trucks first.	Warning - don't fall in. Don't be stupid.	In New Zealand, you cannot sue for personal injury. There's still "don't be stupid" signs like in the US. But here you're expected to use common sense. If it's criminally negligent, then the police prosecute - you still can't sue. The gov't takes care of your medical bills.

	Driving into the belly of the beast.	Trucks stay down here to the left, we go up the ramp to the next deck.	There's overflow of trucks here too on deck. We U-turn and go back into the hold.	Heading back in, to pack the cars in.	In front of us cars have been driving up a ramp 2 lanes wide uphill, U-turning at the far end and coming back round to form 3 lanes out.

	We got very lucky - the ramp was full. Workers put up barricades.	Get everyone clear.	Then the ramp lifts.	You can see underneath it now.	It's all the way up.

	We drive underneath, U-turn at the end.	And we're first in line for unloading from this deck!		The whole upper deck of cars is suspended.	From upper deck, looking down on more cars on the wharf checking in to load on.

		Bottom left is one of the life boats on the ferry. Three boats are awaiting work. They look like tugboats but the one up front has water cannons so it looks like a fireboat.	Looking back at the city. Note the copper building in the center.	HP!	Off to the left is the Te Papa museum.

	On the ferry, the big barrels -- lots and lots of inflatable life rafts. These are scattered throughout the ship.	Backing away from the dock in Wellington.	As we leave the harbor the water changes color.	In the Cook Strait between the islands, whitecaps on the waves. Very little rocking of the boat - Bob and Sue felt well enough to go below and have rashers of bacon for breakfast. :-)	Another ferry goes the other way.

	It's a smaller ferry.	Bob & Sue's adventures	Woo-hoo! The south island appears in the distance.	It's a long sound up to Picton, and the ferry boat has to go slow to avoid erosion-causing wake, so it takes a while.	The hills on both sides are beautiful.

	I asked if it was a Sound or a Fjord. Our walking dictionary says, "A sound is just isthmus or inlets, whereas a fjord is ice-sculpted, by a glacier."	Either way, it's pretty!	Rows of mussel beds	Nice house on the shore	Obvious where the logging industry has clear-cut, and other areas where the trees are already growing back big and tall.

	The trees on the left - you can see that they are planted in rows.	Another ferry boat we're about to overtake.	"Strait Shipping" - Doesn't look like she has much cargo on deck.	We pass her by.	Our wake out the back, with the other ferry way back there.

	Ahead, the water changes color again as we approach Picton harbor.	The white is all foam - the ferry turns and backs into dock.	Almost as much white water churning as at Huka Falls!	About to unload. The folks in the cars up top can't even get up there yet.	The cars that were out on deck get hosed off

	The deckhand is hosing down the far side.	Looking back, driving off the ship	The hills outside Picton	"Swampy's Backpackers" - cute name	Gobs of vineyards here - lots of wineries and just hectares and hectares (acres and acres) of vines everyhere

	Blenheim (pronounced "blenem") is the next town south of Picton. Of course we stop at the i-site to find an internet cafe and lunch.	The i-site is at the railway and bus station (it usually is).	While we're there, a train pulls in and out		One of the cars is open air for sightseeing.

		"Give Way" - yield.	Downtown Blenheim -- sign painted on the sidewalk.	At a supermarket. Kinda like Handicapped parking. Interesting.	Trolley park and Trundler park are interchangeable terms, in the parking lot for returning your grocery cart.

	Hills down here are quite brown compared to north island, and there's not a lot of sheep.... yet.	The hills off in the distance are all cloud-covered	One-lane bridge coming up. This one is long enough that it has its own traffic light.	We drive on. Notice the railroad bridge above. A double-decker.	Looking back, cars are waiting to go the other way

	Salt flats. These had a strange pink color which is not captured well in this picture.	Pretty hills	Hay bales, wrapped in green plastic. We saw these plastic wrapped bales everwhere.	The road goes downhill, our first glimpse of the sea ahead (Pacific Ocean)	Yeah! We made it back to the ocean.

	Gorgeous colors	Sign for a Flagman - usually means road construction ahead. We are looking back and we just passed it but had the same sign going our way. In particular notice the lorry (truck) passing the car.	Another unusual sign. There is a crash ahead, we are still looking back. Just ahead of the sign is a very bad crash yesterday where two big lorries (18-wheelers) collided head-on around a curve. The road is still littered with debris from their loads but we missed getting a picture of it. This lorry in the picture came through the crash site, and still had the cojones to immediately pass a car. Wow.	Misty Mountains	We parallel the coast line for today and tomorrow's drives. Man it's pretty!

		Another cool sign	Our cottage in Kekerengu for 2 nights.	Beautiful flowers and roses around the house

		Reminds me of Mom's Mimosa tree from the old house on Manor.		The living room	The bedrooms

			The back yard goes back a long ways. It's a little overgrown but pretty.	From the back yard looking west at the house.	The shed in front of the car probably used to be their outhouse - the bathroom and shower are add-ons to the house.

	Tigger and friends in a tree in the backyard		Taking a picture of Horace on a leaf, in the pear tree.	Bob relaxes in the back yard.	The bottom of the garden has a gate outside. You can walk down a few steps to the train track and cross it, and go under the road to get to the beach.

	This is a very isolated place (Kekerengu is just a wide spot in the road), lots of solitude, and fairly quiet since the train is down in a culvert and the road is up above. Very relaxing to get away from it all.	A short hike to the beach	Lots of rocks offshore, where the locals say sometimes they spot seals or dolphins.	In spite of the overcast sky, it's beautiful.	But with no sun, it's pretty windy and cold. Gorgeous enough to be worth a walk on the beach!

	Just a few minutes south, a little stream runs out of the mountains (under the road in the distance) to the ocean.	It forms a little pool on the beach, and stops.	But it is actually running _under_ the stones and comes out the other side. See the dark spot in front of Bob?	Just this side of it, the water runs out from under the stones, to the ocean.	The river water is actually colder than the ocean, tho they're both pretty chilly. Wetsuits are required to go in.

	Bob puts up his hood against the wind. Look how his trousers are ballooned up from the wind.	Pretty headland off to the north.	Further up the beach, birds, and just in front of the far bush are two bunnies. They are actually way overpopulated here and drive the native species out of their habitat.