Well, Team New Zealand are the America’s Cup Winner and what an exciting ten races it took to get there. Final score 7:3! Congratulations Te Rehutai!
Today, we hopped islands, taking the early morning ferry from Wellington, in the North Island, to Picton in the South Island. We are traveling with our friends, George and Hilary, who have put together this jaunt south for our benefit.
The ferry (Feronia) is a pretty good size boat which can carry up to 400 passengers and 150 cars. Prior to sailing the Cook Strait in New Zealand, the Italian built Feronia ran routes in Ireland, Morocco, and Sweden. The Cook Strait crossing takes about 3 hours. Frances held it together despite a pretty good swell in the open strait. The entry into the Marlborough Sounds at the top end of the South Island was quite lovely, with long fingers of land coming down to the water and light playing in the hills.
From Picton, we drove through Blenheim and Marlborough, home of some great New Zealand wines, especially Sauvignon Blancs. There is an almost continuous sprawl of vineyards. We have been diligent students of New Zealand wine labels and recognized many of the names – Cloudy Bay, Matua, Wairou, Wither Hills, Stoneleigh, Brancott, Sileni ….. We lunched at Hunter’s Vineyard, in the garden, enjoying a local Rosé with paninis – and lamingtons for dessert.
After lunch, we pushed on to the Kaikōura Coast. The latter was significantly remodeled after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake in November 2016 took out part of the main highway and the main railway line. Uplift along the coast at Kaikōura (up to 6 metres) exposed the intertidal zone, which resulted in a large-scale die off of many organisms including bull kelp and affected puffins and seals. Landslides and other earthquake damage cut off the town of Kaikōura.
The road and railway are now reopened – the gravel is still new in some parts. The road is splendid. We enjoyed stops at Kekerungu and Ohau. The beautiful stones and elaborate driftwood structures at Kekerungu lent a Zenlike ambience that offset the angry waves. At Ohau, we paused to admire the plentiful fur seals and a few shags from the look out.
Tonight, we are staying in the town of Kaikōura. We enjoyed local fish (blue cod) and chips in the chilly shore air at a picnic table in Anzac Park. The pathway had whalebone arches!
