Wandergliding: Wellington & the Ferry to the South Island

November 6th, 2019

After Mount Taranaki, I headed south towards the capital and second largest city of New Zealand, Wellington. I camped at a Freedom Camp spot just north of the city. Damn it was windy…yet again. I holed up in my van for the latter part of the afternoon and evening and got to watch some kite surfers having a blast nearby on the water.

The following morning I headed to Wellington and visited the national museum called Te Papa Tongarewa which essentially means “container of treasures”. There were many groups of school children entering the museum and a lot of them had their faces painted as traditional Maoris would have, they looked super cute. I only had a bit more than an hour to check out some of the museum and the first exhibit that I saw was about Gallipoli, a World War I campaign in Turkey where the Anzacs (Australian & New Zealand Army Corps) fought valiantly and helped forge these British colonies into independent states, much like the battle of Vimy did for Canada. I visited the actual battle site in Turkey in 1996 as I backpacked through Europe after university. One thing that I vividly remember was seeing not one but two pairs of bullets that had collided with another bullet and mangled together…there were that many bullets flying! The terrain also looked incredibly challenging and it’s no wonder that in the end the Anzacs and British forces retreated even though they had inflicted far more casualties on the Turks than they had suffered, it was still a futile endeavour.

Wellington harbour:

The Gallipoli exhibit:

The first statue, Lieutenant Spencer Westmacott, who lost his arm to a bullet on the first day.

The attention to detail was incredible.

The exhibit was really well done and there were eight striking, giant figures of soldiers and a nurse that were incredibly realistic, even down to arm hair. Each one depicted an actual person who was there during the campaign and their individual stories were told. Sadly most of them lost their lives in the battle. I ended up spending my entire allotted time in this exhibit, but it was well worth it.

I hopped back in Betty 2.0 and drove ten minutes back towards the Interislander ferry, one of two companies operating boats between the north and south islands. You had to be there at least an hour before the ferry departed, which in my case was at 12 pm, for the three hour sail. The terminal was nothing other than half a dozen lanes and a washroom building. People complain about our BC ferry system but you know what, it’s not all that bad as there definitely is more infrastructure at the terminals. I was on the Kaiarahi, the newest of the three ferry fleet. For the supposed 1350 possible passengers it can carry, I was surprised by how little amount of the ship was utilized for lounges and cafeterias. One bonus compared to the BC Ferries was that you can have a beer on board! (albeit an expensive one)

The Kaiarahi:

Passing the sister ship the Kaitaki:

Leaving the north island:

The clouds were low as we left Wellington but the sky mostly cleared up as we approached the south island. I was sitting in the main lounge, right in the middle and at the front when I spotted a pod of dolphins swimming straight towards the ship. We must have seen 40-50 of them but by the time I got my phone recording it, I captured but one…still, nice welcoming party!

See if you can spot at least one dolphin:

Entering a channel on the south island:

Yes, I did just get my hair cut.

The cafeteria:

Tuatara...a nice pale ale.

We pulled into the small town Picton’s harbour right on time and I ended up spending the night in a low cost campground where I was able to have a hot shower and use a proper kitchen for dinner and breakfast…a good start to my visit of the south island.

Approaching Picton: