On to the South Island we go! For all of our most dedicated followers, we apologize for the late post yesterday, but we actually slept in later than 5:30am so we missed our blogging time.
So, as a recap, yesterday started off with Avis and Boyd (AirBnB hosts) surprising Caitlin when she got out of the bathroom and telling her to come to the kitchen and eat breakfast with them. The highlight of the conversation had to be when Boyd told us that they had an American channel (Bravo) with the Kardashians and some New York real estate guys (Million Dollar Listing). He said that America used to have shows like Little House On The Prairie and The Waltons, which used to teach good values, but that Bravo revolved around people treating each other like garbage. As a result, they cancelled the Bravo channel. An interesting point of view, we thought.
Following breakfast we took off toward Wellington where we would be driving our car onto a ferr to head to the South Island, Picton specifically. I decided to attempt my first drive on the wrong side of the road.
The first hour of this drive was spectacular as we were now able to see the mountains that we should have been seeing more clearly yesterday on our hike, Mt. Tongariro, Mt. Ngauruhoe, and Mt. Raupeho (Mt. Doom in the Lord of the Rings).
The last part of the drive once again turned to green valleys and hills dotted with cows and sheep as far as the eye could see.
Caitlin wanted to share a picture of her new Kiwi hat....
We got to Wellington and drove our car onto the ship and took off on a 4 hour voyage across the Cook Straight.
We spent most of our time on the top deck so we could take in all the views. Once again, words and pictures cannot do it justice but we will do our best. The water is the bluest water you could possibly see, the background is snow covered mountains, and then there are even houses sprinkled in from time to time that we could only imagine you'd have to get to by boat.
The highlight had to be when we were looking at this gorgeous scene while a group of dolphins were swimming and jumping beside the ship. Just like Titanic. Incredible.
Once the ship landed in Picton we drove our car off and headed towards Blenheim, which is smack dab in the middle of their wine country and known for their Sauvignon Blancs. This was by far the most interesting AirBnb we have stayed in, and probably will be for the rest of our trip. To get their we literally drove miles up a mountain on what they would call "gravel," but was really just small ragged boulders.
Our neighbors.
There is no guard rail keeping you from tumbling down the mountain if the car lost just a little traction. Let's just say there might have been a wet spot in the passenger seat of our car because I was so scared.
Once we got there, we met Sonney and his wife Lou who lived in a house at the edge of the mountain, just up the drive from the bus we stayed in.
They left a newspaper article that described how Sonney cut out the trees himself to create the "driveway," built the house with stones and logs from the mountain, and are powering the house with solar and wind energy. The article said the house is entirely "off the grid." We will try to find the article to post.
We also discussed the election briefly, and let's just say that they are very confused about what's going on, and why.
THEN, Caitlin got her wish—watching Sonney feed the pigs and sheep.
All of this was great, but if you showed me the path we had to drive on when I booked it, I probably wouldn't have done it. But we are going to leave you with pictures of the view from our bus and will let you decide if it was worth it.
Caitlin is now obsessed with the place, but she's a bad ass so I guess I shouldn't have been worried. (She may have just added that part herself, since she acts as the blog admin).