He's got a strobe light and a remote-control for it.
This is definitely the sexist studio.
What's going on ladies and gentlemen?
Welcome back to the channel.
I'm Alex, aka AlexTheVagabond.
Right now I am in the heart of Wellington.
I'm in the left bank right off of Cuba Street,
which is kind of the pedestrian only,
nightlife restaurant, shopping district,
and it's about 8:30 in the morning.
We're staying in a cute little Airbnb,
although there's some strange light choices.
I don't know. Maybe this is like the party spot?
Probably, judging from the noises coming out of downstairs last night.
But today, we have a big day in front of us.
We're going to be hopping a ferry from Wellington to Picton.
We're going to be crossing from the North Island of New Zealand
down to the South Island of New Zealand.
Tomorrow the whole adventure begins in the South Island.
We're going to be checking out the Nelson Lakes National Park region,
spending some time up there,
hot springs, fly fishing, hiking, great scenery.
It should be really rad.
All right, some interesting statistics about Wellington:
it's the capital of the country.
It's the southernmost capital city in the world.
About twenty five percent of the people who live in Wellington were born overseas.
So it's also kind of the cultural capital.
Last night we went out we ate at the Malaysian restaurant called Little Penang.
Food was delicious.
There's a ton of ethnic cuisine in the city and there's a really vibrant cafe culture,
not to mention live music and nightlife.
So if you do visit Wellington, it's kind of the most
diverse-culturally city in New Zealand.
I got the heirloom tomatoes that are on sour dough toast,
and I got a side of eggs
and a side of bacon, but they thought it was for you.
I usually need three coffees in the morning anyways,
so this is actually perfect.
I just have three flat whites with each of their beans.
Looks like two of them are from Rwanda and the other one is a blend.
And then I got an eggs benedict with brisket.
I'm a very happy camper right now.
And we didn't get a ticket. Yes.
We've just popped into New World.
Had to get some supplies before we
head over to queue up for the ferry.
Supposedly people start queuing at least two and a half to three hours
beforehand because there's quite a lot of cars that fit onto these large ferry ships.
But we're going to head over there now.
We're about two hours early, and we shall see.
Carrie, you just ate.
What'd you get?
What did you get? A little custard doughnut, yummy.
So a bit about New Zealand's geography:
New Zealand encompasses a chain of islands:
the north and the south.
The south is much larger and longer.
It's also less tropical.
There's a huge mountain range running through the centre of the southern islands called the Southern Alps.
When you come and visit New Zealand,
you can either fly to the South Island from Wellington
or Auckland or any number of airports in the North Island.
Most people head to Queenstown or Christchurch as starting off points.
It's really it's kind of a fun way to see both the North and the South Island by coming through Wellington,
hopping on the ferry, and taking it across.
There's only really two main ferry companies:
Interislander and Bluebridge Ferries.
When we looked online the Interislander was about a hundred New Zealand dollars more expensive
than the Bluebridge.
You can buy tickets that have a bit of flexibility in them.
And I think that cost about another
fifty to a hundred dollars to have that flexibility.
Or you can just make a decision, say we'll be there,
and we got our ticket for about two hundred and twenty New Zealand dollars.
That covers the passage for two people and our van.
We have about another hour essentially to just chill in the van,
maybe read a book, play some guitar.
And then we're going to drive the car into the belly of the ship,
and then we'll say goodbye to Wellington and head over to the South Island.
[singing] I got the ferry station blues today.
And I'm waiting on a ferry to take me away.
All right, a couple of hours later the ferry blues are almost over,
and we're about to load on.
So they've just loaded the serious motor homes.
Next up are the van lifers,
and we will be on the ferry
on our way south.
Now we have to head up to the passenger level.
You're not allowed to stay in your vehicle during the crossing.
We've got books.
We've got snacks, got water.
I think we'll be all right.
We did a little upgrade, cheeky little upgrade..
Forty bucks for your own shower,
your own bathroom, your own bed.
You don't have to do it , but it is three and a half hours
so might as well chill a little bit.
We've been moving and grooving a lot.
It's nice to chill a little bit.
Yes..[spoken with a Kiwi accent]. Yes.
This is great.
Forty bucks. We each get a little bed,
although one's made, the other is not....whatever.
Forty dollars, twenty bucks each,
we can have a shower, we can nap,
One's a couch.
Get a little privacy. We can read in peace.
Worth it.
All right, and we're off.
All right ladies and gentlemen, we are making our way into the Cook Strait.
It's the channel that divides the North and South Island of New Zealand.
On one side is the Pacific Ocean,
on the other is the Tasman Sea.
Usually, it can be pretty choppy and make for an unpleasant journey.
But today the weather has actually cleared up quite nicely,
even though it was raining back in Wellington.
The sun's kind of out and we're making our way across
this notoriously choppy bit of water.
When we get to the other side, we'll be coming into the Queen Charlotte Sound
and making our way to Picton.
It's really cool. People have swum across this, which is pretty fascinating.
But it's a beautiful day. Feels good.
And I'm glad we're on our way to the South Island.
We've just arrived into the Queen Charlotte Tatanui Sound.
It's the eastern- most of the sounds in the Marlborough Sounds. Unreal.
We have pine trees and mountains just coming right down to the ocean,
and it's this really beautiful turquoise color.
Allright.. back in the car.
We got to the queue pretty early
so it looks like we're going to be able to get out of here pretty early, as well.
It's nice that we're not in the very back of the line.
All right, well we're all checked into our Airbnb.
Had a little bit of a cleanup and now we're going to head into town here in Picton to grab some dinner.
It's dinner time in Picton,
and we've come down to Cockles Kitchen and Bar.
Have a little local MOA IPA.
Approved.
And we're going to do their famous...
world famous seafood chowder.
Comes in a big sourdough bread bowl.
Got to love it.
I am really excited about this chowder.
It's their famous chowder. It's a seafood chowder.
Love me. I feel like we're somewhat of chowder connoisseurs.
Whenever we're in a seaside environment,
we're always like.. let's try the chowder.
Let's chow the chowder
I'm excited to try that.
Everything sounds really great that we ordered,
and I really like that
we made the decision to stay in Picton tonight.
I think that after the ferry for four hours and just kind of getting in at 6 p.m
and unloading and still having daylight left and having dinner right now,
it just feels like the perfect day.
It's a good transit day and it's just comfortable,
and it's not pushing us too far to just stay here, and it's gorgeous.
This is a beautiful, picturesque, seaside town.
It's really stunning and there's lush hillsides all around us. It's beautiful
All right ladies and gentlemen,
it's another beautiful day in New Zealand.
Today our adventure through the South Island begins.
So if you enjoyed the video traveling from Wellington to Picton,
taking the Cook Strait ferry, then you know what to do:
give it a thumbs- up, share it with your friends,
subscribe, turn on notifications, if you haven't already,
make sure you're subscribed to my personal channel,
AlexTheVagabond,
check out my brother's channel, @Markoayling,
and make sure you're subscribed to Vagabrothers.
So in the meantime.. remember stay curious, keep exploring,
and we'll see you on the road.
We're about to pile back into this thing,
and head over there.
[Singing] Help me find new way out from here.
I'll be waiting for a van to clear customs on a rainy day.
Well, it's a...
it's just another rainy day in Wellington.