Interislander – 29 December 2007

Good morning to all! I am checking in while on the Interislander Ferry, as we cross Cook Strait on our way to the South Island today. To make up for me being a slave-driver this morning and cracking the whip to get us out of the Bed & Breakfast and on our way, once aboard the Ferry I splurged to upgrade us so we could rest comfortably on the three hour journey across the water. We are in the Kaitaki Plus Lounge where there is complimentary food and beverage, free internet access (wired and wireless), couches to relax on, and best of all—no kids making noise.
This morning was a bit rushed. After waking and getting the car packed up we had breakfast upstairs with our host Diane. Hayley signed the guest book for us and then we made our way down the hillside. After pulling a u-turn we were in the backed up traffic getting to the Ferry. Having left the B&B later then I really wanted, didn’t want to be rude to our host and skip breakfast; I did not leave us much time to get to the Ferry Terminal. After numerous thumpings of my leg on the car floorboard we made it to the Rental Car Return Car Park. We got the last spot in the caged area. After unloading the car and trekking our way along the long, uneven parking surface we made our way to a long line waiting to check in. Surprisingly, it moved rather quickly. At the counter we tagged our bags and said goodbye to them until we got to the other side, then with boarding passes in hand made our way up the gangway and on board the Kaitaki Ferry.
Hayley was impressed with the Ferry. She claims it way exceeded her expectations. After walking through the Food Court, Recliner Lounge, and the Sun Deck there really appeared to be no safe and comfortable place to sit. It was also quite noisy with all the kids running around. Upon entering the Ferry I took note of the Kaitaki Plus Lounge and now decided to enquire the cost for an upgrade to enter. With a reasonable financial transaction we were inside to where we now relax. Hayley has been on the ship’s computer checking her emails, while I have been on my laptop taking the time to upload photos from the past three days to my FaceBook account. You may log in and check them out if you have a FaceBook account.
I look out the window now and see that we are approaching land again. I will sign off for now and hope to continue once we arrive at tonight’s lodging location, the Kally House. It is near the Pancake Rocks and Blowhole along the Tasman Coast.
We are now on dry land. Following our disembarkation from the Kaitaki we made our way to baggage claim and proceeded to wait for nearly a half hour for our luggage to come up. It was no surprise to me, considering the Kaitaki capacity is 1750. That my friend is a lot of luggage to unload. With all bags in hand we rolled our way over to the car hire line. A short wait later I was at the counter to get the rental, however I was unable to obtain a GPS system. All the GPS systems had been rented out. I made a visit to all the other car hires at the Picton Terminal and had no luck in a GPS acquisition. I broke the news to Hayley we were going to have to do the South Island old school, utilizing paper atlases and maps on the itinerary. With that news we gathered our belongings and the car and headed south on State Highway 1.
With Hayley getting more acclimated with the atlas she discovered Blenhiem was the last big town for nearly two hours. This became our first stop, just twenty minutes down the road from Picton. Here we dined on the wonderfully delightful food of an American business world re-known as KFC. About forty five minutes later we were back on the road cruising through the vineyards in the Wairua River Valley. Once passing through Renwick I was pretty comfortable with the directions for some time. Therefore I turned off my human GPS named Hayley and let her put her seat back and take a nap.
Nearing the Tasman Sea almost two hours later I brought Hayley back to life so she would not miss the gorgeous scenery. Once we were on the Tasman coast we delighted ourselves in numerous photo stops. These stops took longer than planned, thus we opted to bypass the Pancake Rocks in Punakaiki today and push forward to Barrytown to check into our Bed and Breakfast for the night, The Kally House.
Upon our arrival at the Kally House our host greeted us and gave us the complete tour of the place. A tour was very welcomed, as the place was enormous and simply magnificent. At the conclusion of the tour our host called ahead and made dinner reservations for us at Darcy’s Buffalo Bar & Grill down the road about one kilometer. After settling in, Hayley ventured into the flower gardens along the driveway and took flower photos, while I looked at the next day’s itinerary. Shortly before 730pm we were off to Darcy’s for the best steak we had had here in NZ.
After a return to the Kally House to get sweatshirts we walked to the beach to view the sunset. The walk was a much longer walk than anticipated and the sky was too cloudy for a gorgeous sunset, yet it was still decent nonetheless. We soaked it in and enjoyed our romantic evening. Back in our room we changed into our house clothes and relaxed on the couch. It was not long after we found some zzz’s for the night.
Cheers,
Bob & Hayley