Yesterday I got up at 430am...for the day. I woke up randomly and it wasn't even worth it to try to go back to sleep. I had to be up early did the ferry anyways but not that early. The place I was staying was ok but not great and I just knew there was no way I was going back to bed. I packed up and went to the kitchen to read and write. Finally around 630 I started to walk to the ferry. Thankfully it was starting to get light out at that point. I walked to the interisland ferry terminal thinking that I could walk to the bluebridge ferry from there, you cannot. You have to hop on a bus that doesn't leave until 7, make one more pickup stop then go to the ticketing building a couple of streets over. You check in, including your luggage and then wait for another bus that takes you to the boat. They send the foot passengers right through the truck cargo deck, it was massive. The ship was one of these huge car transporters The passenger area was quite nice. I got a nice seat at one of the front windows but then lost it when I went to get some breakfast, fail. The seat I ended up with was a nice one on the port side. It was sunny a lot of the way which was great because the boat was a bit cold.
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Picton Harbor |
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Aboard the Bluebridge Ferry |
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The views were wonderful. I alternately wrote and watched the view until I took a short nap. A nice three and a half hour ride later we were pulling into Wellington. Quite a shock to my system I have to say after being in the middle if nowhere for most of the trip. Wellington is a real city, still smaller population wise, but compared to the south island places I went it is big. There are about 500,000 people in the greater Wellington area. The port views are nice as far as ports go. There are houses in the hills all around that make it picturesque and cancel out the not very attractive high rises in the city center. I got a taxi and was off to my hotel, yes hotel, haha. I knew I was going to be hosteled out and need a repack at this point that is why I arranged this place. The cab driver had never heard of it before which was concerning. I also didn't have the address because I couldn't get online. The hostel owner from the night before had told me there would be wifi on the boat, there was not or at least not on that boat. It was just one of a string of issues in that hostel. The cab driver called someone to figure it out. I could point to it on the map but I didn't have an exact address. We found it and it had a blink and you'll miss it sign. I get upstairs and the place is perfect, exactly what I need. I had forgotten that it was actually a studio. It was very clean and I wanted to do a running flying jump face first onto the bed.Not only did it have a kitchenette, it also had a washer! I was thrilled, free wifi, free washer/dryer and a balcony to boot! I would later royally mess up the washer and wash my clothes for 2.5 hours and have to dry them for nearly the same amount of time, but it was free and I didn't have to leave the room and that is good in my book.