Kiwi-Nutz

The Alternative South Island Diary

The North Island Drive

As I said, we left Ohope (Bay of Plenty) for our journey south at 5.10am. The plan was set to travel for 7 hours through the heart of the North Island, in time to make Wellington at 1.00pm, one hour before the 2.00pm InterIsland ferry departure from Lower Hutt to Picton.

For the first time on our holiday we actually got to see the sunrise.

This shot was taken on our first pit-stop, it was a tad cloudy but yet another scenic part of NZ had been seen, the scenery seems endless.

Roads

The roads were really windy and caused the kids a little sickness. The problem is not really the roads themselves, as they are very well designed and maintained but purely the unavoidable and continuous sweeping bends that frequent most parts of NZ. Anyway let's face it, you can't have all those hills without a few bends in the roads. We did eventually find a cure for the sickness - travel sickness tablets (sealegs) - What a godsend, and available over the counter at most pharmacies.

Detour

So we planned on a seven hour journey but what we didn't bargain on was a detour. A detour in England normally means a minor inconvenience that might add 15 minutes to your journey. A detour in NZ can mean anything, and anything in this case was a 45 minute journey to nowhere and back-again. It was sort of fun to start with, seeing some real rural areas off of the beaten track but ended up really cutting into our schedule. Be aware, that is all I can say, the road system is great when it's working!

The advice therefore is, take time to plan for such eventualities and add an hour to your journey. The good news is that we made it to the ferry by 1.58pm (2 minutes before departure). This on any other day would have meant missing the ferry and having to pay again for the next but only for the consideration of the kindly ferry-master were we able to board and continue our holiday.

Ferry Journey

The ferry was well organised and the furnishings comfortable for the 3 1/2 hour journey. The journey through the fjord-like estuary to Picton was quite inspiring, and a good start to the holiday. On board was a magician who kept the kids happy for an hour, and the time passed quicker than expected.