van wyk journeys 
The front row seat view as the ferry loads 
What the sea looked like at various times 
What the sea looked like at various times 
What the sea looked like at various times 
What the sea looked like at various times 
More gannets 
A view to the back of the ferry as it negotiates a turn into a smooth inlet 
The port of Picton, New Zealand 
A view from our car inside of the ferry. 
Walk-on ferry passengers leaving the ferry.
+16, raining cats and dogs, and very windy
Today we are off to Motueka on the South Island. But first, we need to take a 3 1/2 hour ferry “cruise” which under blue skies and calm winds would be a piece of cake. But not today, the seas are high due to the adverse weather conditions making it bad enough for an email to be sent to all passengers advising that if you were transporting horses not to bring them.
But off to the ferry we went in the dark rainy morning. Thank goodness for next to no traffic as we could barely see the road stripes let alone the traffic lights. But we made it to the loading lanes nearly at the front of the line. We thought that was good, first on first off right? Not on this ferry as we were guided into the ship then up a ramp that I realized was lifted to allow for more cars underneath. As it turns out we were not last off but it was interesting sitting there watching the proceedings. The other part that was interesting was the number of passengers dropped off by tour buses or being told to drop their car rental and either get on a new bus or get another rental. We waited 15 or 20 minutes for those passengers to clear the deck before our level began unloading. Driving away we saw all the foot passengers getting on a bus or heading for new car rentals. Others we spoke to were surprised that our car rental agency allowed us to take our rental over to the South Island.
Well back to the ferry “cruise” and the “smooth” sailing. Things were okay until we cleared the outer harbour islands. That’s about when Kevin via text said: “Hopefully, it’s not a three-hour tour Gilligan”. It was sort of funny at the time but I learned how to deal with seasickness over the years but it was surely not a fun time for lots of people including Maryann (Joan). The best place to be was not at the bow where we had great views of water clearing the bow by a large margin but back mid-ship and out in the fresh air.
Fortunately, it did not last more than an hour and the last 45 minutes were on pretty smooth inlet waters heading for the port of Picton.
Well on the road again heading to Moteuka with a stop in Nelson to load up with groceries at Countdown and $2.069 per liter gasoline at BP. The cheapest gas we found was in Rotorua at $1.799 per litre using the discount that we get with our Countdown card hence part of the reason we try to get our groceries there.