The Journey South

Early afternoon Saturday we arrived in Wellington to blue skies. Our ‘little rigs’ refridgerator wasn’t working so we headed to the Britz dealership to see what the problem was. Turns out that we needed to recharge the battery every 2 or 3 days according to a troubleshooting sheet. Problem was that we were not given said sheet in Auckland. Awesome. But no matter, we checked into a campsite and plugged in, then caught a bus into town.

Wellington is a cool city. Centrally located, the city is compacted into a small little hub offering up a plethora of restaurants and entertainment. Most of the night we strolled up and down Cuba Street, checking out shops and various eating establishments. After a little debate, I convinced Veronica that we should go eat at the Flying Burrito Brothers (Mexican again!). Had a nice, yet pricey dinner that didn’t quite measure up to Auckland’s Mexican Café. Ended up meeting 3 Americans who worked for the U.S. Embassy in Australia. Small world how we always end up running into other American’s, but I guess it’s a Yankee trait to possess a fetish for Mexican. We are all powerless at the thought of some tasty burritos or tacos, hence all the other poor bastards hankering for a little South of the Border (?) cuisine.

Our ferry was scheduled for 1:00 pm Sunday afternoon, so we headed back into town in search of a good coffee. On Cuba Street we decided to forgo Fidel’s and instead try Ernesto’s. Oh how they love their Marxist Revolutionaries on Castro Street! Had a fantabulous flat white at Ernesto’s, and oh how I wish we were not on a budget because their breakfast looked like Jimmy Walker would be yelling ‘Dy-n-o-mite!’ after each bite. Before heading onto the ferry we took another photo in front of a Texas named business, as seen here.

The ferry crossing was gorgeous, but COLD! Oh so cold. The trip was 3 hours, and after arriving in Picton we headed out across some winding roads to Nelson, the biggest city in the North end of the South Island. Had a very interesting night as we met up with 3 inebriated locals who were celebrating seeing their mate who’s been gone for a year. The wayward mate (Al) was a boat builder who lived just South of Sydney. We all got to talking and ended up having a couple of beers with them before we headed to a residential street to free camp.

Monday morning we grabbed groceries before driving a long way down to Greymouth. We stopped just outside of Westport to check out a seal colony, but besides for that most of the day was spent highway bound. Spent a cold night in Greymouth with howling winds rocking the van back and forth during the night. Veronica thought the campervan was going to tip over and I thought the telephone pole was going to fall on us! Tuesday morning we used the free Wifi at the Library to catch up before heading to Franz Joseph.