Interislander.....

With our time in Wellington winding down we all set to packing. Then we were off to the Interislander Ferry Terminal. The troop took a shuttle into town and we taxied over (feeling utterly decadent). :) With numerous bags in tow we lined up to check-in and soon we were striding up the gangplank and making our way up a couple flights of stairs on to the Interislander! Tim and I had wanted to take the ferry across the Cook Strait to the South Island since we arrived in Wellington but never found the right time. Needless to say we were all excited to experience this special sailing. Upon boarding Tim, Landy and I made our way around the different passenger floors and up to the top deck where we spent some time taking in the view of the city while we waited to push off to sea. Soon we were underway as the captain engaged thrusters to push us away from the dock and out into the harbor.

Now Tim and I have taken a small ferry to a couple locations around the harbor but this was something entirely different. Moving farther out into the harbor we made our way around all the accessible decks to take in the views and watch for sea life. Repeatedly, we've heard reports of orcas, dolphins and sharks in Wellington harbor so it was possible that we might see something. Sadly, none were around or at least swimming close to the surface and our boat. :(

While Paul, Linda and Ange found some comfy seats inside Timmy and Josephine went off to find the indoor playground. Landy and I then spent the majority of the 3.5 hour crossing leaning on the railing on one of the side decks. We spent this time catching up on various topics and even saw one fish! It was white with a short (front to back) body that was thin but long (top to bottom). It was unlike anything I've ever seen before.

Before we knew it we were approaching our South Island destination: Picton. After disembarking we gathered our truck load of bags and set off to pick up the rental cars that would take us to our final destination, sunny Nelson. After waiting in line for thirty minutes we were able to get all the driver details sorted; Landy and Paul would be the drivers on one vehicle and Tim and I would be the drivers of the second car. After wrangling a booster seat for Josephine we started moving all the bags to the vehicles. We were given a smallish, four door hatchback and a medium sized SUV. Lucky for us we didn't have two sedans because all of our bags barely fit in these two vehicles. :) From there we loaded up all parties and drove a short distance in to town where we stopped for lunch. Then with full tummies we set off on the 1.5 hour drive to Nelson. The road skirted the coast in places but without fail the entire stretch was skinny-laned and multiple places had no shoulder. But you won't be surprised to hear that Paul and Timmy delivered us safely to Nelson. Upon arrival we were consulting Google Maps and it said to turn off the highway and we knew we were getting close to our rental house. What we didn't expect is that we would essentially drive up a mountain. Eyeing the map I kept telling Timmy, "keep going, keep going".

So up, up, up we went and finally pulled into a driveway that appeared to be the last one up the hill. Soon we realized that we were at house number 10 but we needed 17. So the drivers backed the cars out onto the road and we continued on to what really was the end of the road.