To The North (via Nelson and Picton)

It's great driving around small islands, the distances are so short and with such minimal traffic, it always feels like you make such good time. So to make it more equitable to places such as the UK, throw in a couple windy roads and things start to take a little longer. Those little roads do make travelling so much more interesting. Leaving behind the valley of Bacchus (or one of his many valleys) the route took us through horse country and past some inlets that cover much of the northern coast line. Interesting as they are flooded river systems by the sea (sea level rise) as opposed to the southern variants of flooded valleys – the Fjords which are ice created and much more dramatic in scale. Nevertheless, this was a great and beautiful drive, with the logging and fishing being the obvious mainstays of the economy here. Heading through the mountains towards Nelson we noted a couple of campsites which looked pleasant and a route to Picton which was decidedly more interesting that returning via Blenheim. So a couple more bendy ups and downs with signposts for 25kms at each one and we eventually got to a coastal flat of Nelson. The number of trucks roaring up the hill for more logs almost created a busy road.

Nelson is a lovely little place spread out between the main grid city and then along the coast line to the south. The main harbour had a couple of ships loading timber and some very nice yachts in the marina. We took it easy, ate a pleasant lunch overlooking the marina and then found some parking and wandered into the main city looking for a little internet which wouldn't be too pricey. Nelson has some good shopping – focused mainly on the outdoors sporting life and boating/fishing. The town isn't massive and well, we spotted another cinema and decided to watch a late showing of Defiance which was pretty good – again, cinema is so cheap so it's a nice way of being warm and taking it easy while not sitting in a van. I think we are getting over the van this being the 10^th week in one :-0. Well evenings anyway! Nelson has an interesting cathedral in the city and the history behind it is quite trivial and vaguely interesting. It seems small mindedness and independence from the other island persuaded Elisabeth to grant them their own Archbishop (CoE) and thus Nelson is a city in its own right. The cathedral has been rebuilt a number of times, those bloody earthquakes keen ruining things. The bell tower might want some help in being replaced though, its hideous and frankly worth tearing down, or perhaps cladding with wood or something. Imagine the architects of south bank in London with their love of concreted building a cathedral tower and that's pretty much what you have. A little less concrete though.

So onwards ho, back up the hill to a little campsite, the drive up in third gear mainly- it's pretty damn steep!!! Arriving at an aforementioned campsite. The next day Jen drove the last stretch to Picton along a very windy picturesque road – almost in a convoy with some other campers. The road not only twists and turns hugging the coast line, but dips and climbs very erratically to bays and summits. Tunnels?

Then as you start wondering where Picton is, a small port full of logs turns up with two Chinese ships loading at a relaxed pace- but that isn't it; around the corner the town of Picton appears. We didn't bother visiting the town as the port was practically the first left as we entered the place and frankly the view from the ship a little later was all we needed… the primary route between the islands, the town has a lot of rail tracks and roads from the south (two of each) heading to the ferries. Our ferry was an ex GB-France one as the painted over name on the side was Pride of Cherbourg….

On board was the usual ferry ride, a good view of a town not really worth spending time looking at, but great views of the sea and in the clear waters below, the fish and birds swimming/diving in the water chasing them. Leaving the dock, we headed out into the sounds following the coast and executing a couple tight turns around through the valleys. We finally reached the sea and while we had been warned it could be choppy, did not expect what we had. Complete and utter calm waters, the whole way. It was great, the ferry trip afforded us some views of Albatrosses and the usual people watching, cups of tea and chocolate. What felt like 1 hour was actually three and when we arrived, we found a new and very different NZ to what we had experienced.