Unfortunately, today would be our last day on the South Island of New Zealand.  After loading up our rental vehicle one last time, we spent the morning driving around the Blenheim area, and stopped at a couple of wineries.

After a quick wine tour, we headed up the road to Picton to meet the Interislander ferry to Wellington.  It’s only about a 30-minute drive from Blenheim to Picton, where we dropped our rental truck and checked our baggage for the ferry ride.  During our time on the South Island, we put about 2,200 kilometres on our vehicle.

Below is a picture of our ship, Kaitaki.

Once on board, we got settled in the first class lounge for some lunch before shoving off for the North Island.

The scenery heading through the passages that leave the north island was lovely.  The crossing would take just over 3 hours.

Here we are getting closer to the end of the string of little islands at the top end of the South Island.

Now out in the open water, I left the outside viewing area and returned to the lounge.  The seas were picking up with about a 5.5 metre swell.  Not really a problem for this ship, which is designed to make the open ocean crossing.  Inside, we just felt a gentle rocking motion.  In addition to about 1,000 passengers, these ferries also carry cars, trucks, buses and even trains on one of the decks.

Approaching the North Island, we would visit the capital city of Wellington as our last stop in New Zealand.  Wellington, at the south end of the North Island, is approximately in the centre of the country, which is why it was designated the capital city many years ago (at one time, Auckland was the capital).  There are approximately 180,000 people in the city, and 450,000 in the Wellington regional area.

We arrived in Wellington to find cloudy skies and a bit of rain, which is a sharp contrast to the beautiful sunny weather when we left Picton at the top of the South Island.  We claimed our bags and took a taxi to our hotel.