Wellington - Nelson

Marlborough Sounds.

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We arrived at the terminal early to discover that the ferry was sailing, but due to incredible lack of forsight by Interislander (not the first in our dealings with them), the ferry was delayed while we waited for a single small bus to ferry a couple of hundred passengers back and forth from the pick up point at the railway station to the terminal. Our experience with Interislander has been pretty awful, the lack of organisation and general common sense was at times, mind boggling. I should point out that we had no problem with the cancellation, it was the general handling of the stranded passengers that was completely out of order.

The ferry was absolutely packed, with people having to sit on the floor. About fifteen minutes into the sailing we hit the full force of Cook Strait. The sick bags were out all around us, and we had to head outside to avoid illness ourselves. The next two hours were a trail, with the sea playing with our huge ferry like a child with a rag doll, throwing us around in a horrible fashion!

Marlborough Sounds.

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Then we entered the Tory Channel. To our amazement, we spent the next hour saling perfectly calm waters surrounded by the idyllic rural hills of the Marlborough Sounds. The sun shone, the wind died, it was a different world, perfect. Such a journey of contrasts I have never known.

As we cruised into Picton, nestled in a corner between the hills and the sea, we passed our boats sister ship, half the size of ours, heading out to Wellington. I wonder if they knew what they were in for when they hit the Cook Strait? We docked, caught our coach that was waiting for us, and headed out to Nelson.

As for us, we shall be avoiding boats for some time, and avoiding Interislander for some time longer than that!