Travel Notes: South Island Crossing — Day 8
The wheels on the bus go ’round & ’round & ’round & ’round…
Dear Family & Friends,
This—I hope!—was our longest day on the road.
We left our hotel in Wellington at 7:30 this morning to be in line for the 8:45 a.m. ferry to the South Island.
The ferry was an interesting experience! The tour manager gets off the bus (oops—motor coach) to collect the tickets for the passengers. Then, with everyone still on board, Robin—our driver—drove the bus right onto the ferry. Once parked, we disembarked and headed upstairs to the upper decks.
There was an international food court with hot food, a coffee shop with cold sandwiches, and a bar. The indoor decks had reclining seats, and there was access to an outdoor observation deck above. The ferry crossing across Cook Strait to the South Island took exactly three hours.
We arrived in Picton at 11:45 a.m., our port of entry to the South Island. Since we’d eaten an early lunch on the ferry, we boarded the bus and immediately began our journey south.
First impression: My God, how great Thou art! Truly, this is an amazingly beautiful country. The Southern Alps, the backbone of the South Island, are incredible—partially shrouded in clouds. I now understand why the Māori call New Zealand Aotearoa: the Land of the Long White Cloud.
Next impression: there really are more sheep than people on the South Island! It’s springtime here, and lambs are frolicking beside their grazing mamaaaaaas (sorry—I couldn’t help myself!) on the most emerald-green pastures I’ve ever seen. Occasionally our big yellow bus—yes, it is a BIG YELLOW bus—would startle the lambs and they’d race back to safety. Other times they simply lifted their heads and looked back at me as I gazed at them. For some reason, lambs frolicking in green fields is one of the most delightful sights imaginable.
Oh dear—there are deer farms in New Zealand. Robin has been telling us about them, but today we saw fenced pastures of red deer grazing like cows. They eat a lot of venison here. ’Nuff said.
Finally, after a long drive down the west coast of the South Island, with views of the Tasman Sea (if you squint really hard across it, you still can’t see Australia), we arrived at 7:30 tonight in the town of Franz Josef, near the glacier of the same name.
One of my assignments on this tour was to give a talk about the Franz Josef Glacier, and today was the day! The folks on our tour were very gracious and told me I did a great job. It felt really good to finally be in the jump seat—the seat next to the driver—with the microphone in my hand.
So now it’s late on Monday night, and I am more than ready for bed. Tomorrow we visit both the Franz Josef and Fox Glacier, and tomorrow night we’ll be in Queenstown, the home of bungy jumping.
More later!
Love to all,
TJ