Wellington to Christchurch

We drove our car onto the Aratere ferry for the 3 hour trip across the Cook Strait from Wellington on the North Island to Picton on the South Island.  The crossing was very smooth, with a calm sea.  Again we were blessed with clear skies.  We sailed out of Wellington Harbour and through the heads.  

Once across the Cook Strait we entered Queen Charlotte Sound and made our way through some very photogenic scenery past some fish farms and mussel farms to Picton.  The Marlborough Sounds are true sounds, being flooded river valleys.    Milford Sound and the other "sounds" in Fjordland in the south-west are actually not sounds but are fjords or flooded glacial valleys.

We stayed overnight in Picton before venturing south along the coast to Christchurch on Tuesday.  We drove past many vineyards.  The Marlborough region produces many fine wines.  Harvest has started and we saw bunches of grapes hanging from the vines.



Further south we stopped at Ohau Point Lookout to see some seals.  This is a seal nursery and there were plenty of young seals.  Some were close to the road under bushes.  Others were basking on the rocks; and more were swimming in the rock pools.

We stopped at Kaikoura for lunch at a barbecue seafood caravan.  The local delicacies of crayfish and whitebait patties we had were delicious.

A couple of hours later we arrived in Christchurch.