New Zealand - Nov 10

Wellington to Picton to Havelock

What a fabulous day!  After I just wrote that I thought how could it have been a fabulous day...  it rained and was cloudy and a bit chilly.  But it was a fabulous day.

😊

To start we rode in the rain to catch the ferry at Wellington.  It started out as a mist then rain then mist.  It was a short ride so not too bad.  The ferry was a 3+ hour ride out into the open ocean.  The seas had laid down from the previous day which made the ferry ride smooth.  If we had experienced the wind enthusiastic, white capped wonder of yesterday's seas...  Ho boy there could have been a bit of the sea sick, green faced lot. 😳

The scenery was beautiful as we came into the land mass of the South Island.

The straits...

Picton harbor...

As we came off the ferry we were greeted by another round of showers.  This time it went past the gentle phase and went right to torrent.  But it was a warm rain... NOT!  It was a cold rain.

We stopped for lunch just after we got off the ferry and I got my second meat pie of the day.  Meat pie? What is a meat pie you ask?  It is a delicacy that someone specifically designed to meet my culinary tastes.  It is a stew that is encased in a pie crust.  I could just live on a diet of meat pies.  Like Australia, they have a plethora of selections of meat pies.  There are meat pies for every occasion.  And one meat pie leads directly to another.  It is hard to eat just one.  😊  

I know, a bit much on meat pies right.  But there are few places in the world where there is a direct alignment with my eating tastes.  And this is one.  Australia is two.

Once we left lunch we headed for a climb along the beautiful coast road.  It was a stunning ride.  Breathtaking scenery with a better view than the last around every bend and curve.  If this is just the start of it...  can't wait for the rest.

View down one of the fiords...

A bay with the mountains dressed in wispy clouds.

The hills as green as any in Ireland.

The rhododendrons with flowers as beautiful as any I have seen...

It was a day to remember...