WELLINGTON – PICTON – PELORUS BRIDGE (DWARVERN BARRELS) – NELSON,
12 May 2024
At the crack of dawn, with a 5:30am wake-up call, we said goodbye to the North Island (for now) and Wellington. Breakfast at this hotel has been beyond wonderful with fresh fruits and mushrooms to die for! That didn’t stop me feeling like my eyes were made of sandpaper after getting very little sleep. So, several coffees and two cans of energy drink later (yes, yes, I can hear your judgement), we boarded the Interislander ferry from Wellington to the town of Picton on the South Island. We bid goodbye to North Island coach, “Shadowfax”, checked our luggage in and off we went.
The voyage itself was very smooth, a little choppy after leaving the Bay of Wellington before hitting the Cook Strait, but otherwise, it was comfortable, and the weather outside on the top deck was very warm objectively. McKenzie and I, followed by the others (Jon had to take a moment to look green bordering on translucent first), sat and talked for most of the journey across the Strait, which was wonderful. Especially to start with as being on a tour, we don’t tend to have much time to talk 1-1 with each other. It was nice to get that time. What followed can only be summed up by a lot of photos rather than anything else. We entered the Queen Charlotte Sound and were lost for words at the beauty. Take a Norwegian fjord, add more warmth and a touch of the You Only Live Twice Theme – welcome to the South Island!
The only anecdote of note before moving on is the two English siblings on board that were nice enough, chatting to various people. Both from London about their “working holiday visa”, as they were working their way across ANZ for 3 weeks…
They were a doctor and a dentist…
I don’t quite think that’s what people mean when they’re taking “working holidays”. But, hey, they get points for commitment to the bit.
After arriving in Picton, we boarded our first Southern bus, “Brego” (ha, fkn nerds), and wound our way toward the Pelorus Bridge to do some kayaking!!! There are several differences for us this week:
1. There’s much more active stuff this week, kayaks, hikes… someone mentioned that I’m apparently jumping of a bridge on Friday… must be a booking mishap.
2. The South Island is immediately more mountainous, there a deep valleys and range after range of gorgeous mountains. It stole my breath the first time I saw it. Now, we’re in stunning Wine Country. Marlborough, to be exact.
So, upon getting to the Bridge (where they filmed a singular bit of the barrel ride in The Hobbit… a bit of a stretch, but hey, kayaks!), we had our safety talk, tried (and mostly failed) to clamber down a massive rock beach to the Rai river and rapids and off we went.
For about 10 minutes, Jon and I wanted to murder each other. It turns out that Jon didn’t know left meant turn left and spun us the opposite way so that we hit a rock in the middle of some rapids. I wasn’t much help, trying to even us out by vertically rowing, but out of sync, which made us spin faster than a Grandmaster Flash mix.
Many wonderful words were exchanged that I can’t write here for fear my mother may vomit.
That said, we got our Norse Midlands heritage into shape, and after that brief interlude, we smashed it and picked up a solid pace down the river. Laughing and chanting as we threw ourselves over the rapids. By the time we reached the ending, we were ready to storm Lindisfarne… then realised we were nerds, English, white, and in a Commonwealth country… no, thank you.
Actually, the most interesting fact we heard about the area was that during filming for The Hobbit, they had to evacuate due to a flash flood of the river. According to our guides, it reached as high as the bridge, which is 11m (36ft), so… nothing major.
Photos will come courtesy of our guides and people who didn’t row, so I will post then when available.
Finally, we arrived in Nelson on the northern shore of the South Island. A nice, small seaside city. However, as McKenzie, Joseph, Jon, and I wandered, we found a small problem.
We had arrived on a Sunday.
Nelson was closed. It may as well have been a ghost town. Empty streets and storefronts, other than the tolling cathedral bell that seemed to ethereally draw us like lambs to a slaughter and an arcade. It seemed that we’d left Aotearoa and found ourselves suddenly in the Midwest of the US.
But, one amazing pizza later at Stephano’s, joined by Emma and an insanely tired Liam, and we all went back for an early night and I got to catch my partner back home, which during this second week is rare, due to the early wake ups and long travelling that needs to be done.
We also had what I can only describe as an interesting vibe for our hotel here.
But, clashing sinks aside, if today was the day of Water…
Tomorrow is a day of Air.
Tomorrow… we’re going flying.
– Jake,
15 May 2024
P.S. Jon is also writing about his version of events over on his Tumblr page, Misplaced Midlanders! Check it out!
The Long Expected Journey 