Goodbye South Island

March 1 - A somewhat gloomy day in Picton with not a lot to do! I managed to manacle John to the computer this morning so he could write on the blog about the cars. He wanted me to do it, but I figured “John saw lots of cars” wouldn’t really tell the whole story. We went to see the Edwin Fox this afternoon - apparently the 9th oldest wooden sailing ship still around (as Lonely Planet says, “Who COUNTS these things”!) Anyway, she was a rather sad looking old hulk that had been around the world quite a few times with assorted cargoes. One of her jaunts was transporting convicts from England to Australia, and on the convict list was a J. Hartley, sent away for passing bad cheques! The fact that his name was Joseph takes a bit away from the story, but there we go. One poor guy had been sent to the colonies for stealing trousers and another for being sacrilegious! They had done a nice job of the museum and it was a good way to spend an hour or so. We then went to one of the strangest cinemas I think I have ever been to. It was housed behind the seahorse display in the aquarium and you had to wait inside the aquarium building to see your movie! John and me and a couple of elderly ladies trouped in to a tiny auditorium to see “Mid-August Lunch” which was billed as a gentle Italian comedy. It certainly was gentle - we nearly went to sleep waiting for something to happen! But again, not a bad way to while away a rainy afternoon. We headed out to supper at Seamus’ Irish Pub and had Guiness pot pie which was very good and then there was a jam session which was not bad; a 60ish woman on the fiddle, 70ish man on guitar and a young guy on the boron (sp?). They were actually pretty good and the boron player was excellent. There was also a rather interesting lady (50ish) in a red dress who rather unexpectedly got up in the middle of a jig and started doing something that I think she thought was step dancing. She wasn’t part of the group but was certainly part of the entertainment!
March 2 - Ferry across the Cook Strait to Wellington. We had been warned that this can sometimes be quite a choppy crossing, but even though the weather wasn’t great (rainy and grey) we had a very smooth ride. We emerged from the ferry and headed for the campground that I had booked ahead to ensure that we had a place for the night. It’s turned out to be a parking lot behind a motel where they have crammed 28 spaces for camper vans. We will be leaving first thing in the morning to head for pastures new!