Day 20

Wellington to Picton 150 km (?)

I rode the ferry from Wellington to Picton today. It was a picturesque cruise, particularly the Queen Charlotte sound leading into Picton. The Cook straight between the north and the south islands was very windy. Even so apparently the crossing was on a particularly nice day. I read in the paper that six days earlier ferry crossings between the islands was canceled due to eight meter swells in the straight. The day I made the journey the waves were less than a meter in height and still managed to rock the enormous ferry quite noticeably.

The crossing took nearly four hours and by the time I disembarked in Picton there was time only to find a tent site and get some dinner. I set my tent next to yet another cycle tourist, the first New Zealander on a bike I've come across. Jess, who quite liked my Surly Long Haul Trucker is about 65 and spending the next four weeks cycling the length of the south island before setting off to sea for six months. Presumably the cargo ship he works on is sufficiently large to avoid much of the undulations I experience on the ferry--a vessel that from my perspective seemed quite large. Or perhaps one gets used to having the deck plates in constant motion. I didn't get sick at all, but concentrating on staying balance while walking was a peculiar sensation. Clearly as a landlubber I don't have much in the way of sea-legs.