Windy Wellington

Tuesday 17 December

Windy Wellington - you do not take your nick name lightly! Woke up with Banjo still being rocked by a bit of a gale and to wintry temperatures. Louis popped to the pool for a swim and I took our washing to the local laundromat. $8 for the wash & dry - bargain!

Then we hitched up, battled the winds into town and queued up to board the Blue Bridge ferry Feronia for the wild ride to Te Wai Pounamu, the South Island. We felt a little smug as car passengers sat in their cars waiting and we hopped into Banjo and did.a little tidying and made wraps for lunch on the ferry!

Louis was rather nervous about manouevering Banjo into the confined spaces of the ferry in amongst huge delivery lorries, car transporters and other large caravans and mohos, but it proved surprisingly easy and soon we were parked up behind NZ Vanlines.

Can’t tell you much about the trip - we took Sealegs tablets an hour before boarding and they knocked me for six 💤💤💤

Coming out of the heads at Wellington end was pretty gnarly as we hit the Cook Strait, with a 6m swell and howling gale! The outside decks were quickly closed to passengers, and a bunch of hardy souls lined up along the front windows and cheered loudly as the waves occasionally hit the L5 windows which must have been 20m above the water line.

Fortunately we all survived and it was pretty calm sailing once we hit the Marlborough Sounds, but we had addd well over an hour to the crossing time, and were very happy to finally see Picton and the ferry terminal. Happier still to see that Banjo had survived the tumultuous journey unscathed - thank goodness!

Disembarkation was easy as and 15 minutes later we had our pick of the spots at Parklands Marina Campsite in Waikawa just outside Picton. Plugged in and the heat pump switched on, we were finally warm at last!