today we are finally making it to the South Island this is it North Island see
later South Island hello
so this is it this morning we are leaving very early trek global backpackers and
we are heading toward interislander ferry terminal this is our gateway to
the South Island we are stoked and just a quick tip for you guys if you take the
very early morning ferry it's actually much cheaper than taking it during the
day so as we are on a budget this is the option that we are choosing for
ourselves now we were bit nervous about manoeuvring a giant camper van onto the
ferry but it actually proved to be pretty easy we're clearly directed by
the workers on the ferry and we park up no problem and start exploring the
interislander ferry we are making our way around the massive stairs network of
the interislander ferry to try to find a nice vantage point for us to basically
say goodbye to Wellington it has been about 76 days in the making
we've done half the North Island we're finally hitting the south Island
This is about to get epic there are multiple viewing decks for the Interislander ferry so we
pick a good spot at the back to watch Wellington turn smaller into the
distance we can see all sorts of the Wellington region there's mountains
there's a lighthouse in the distance we can even see some wind turbines and it's
just an absolutely stunning day to be doing the ferry crossing as we wave
goodbye to the North Island Laura and I reminisce on the amazing amount of
activities that we've already got to do on the North Island and it's quite crazy to think
that we've done that much and explored only half of the North Island but to our
surprise we are greeted by some of the staff which tell us they have a surprise
for us because the crew interislander noticed all our cameras and it's a bit
of a slow morning we've been invited to go up to the bridge which is where the
captain pilots the boat or drives the boat so we entered the bridge which
looks like something out of Star Trek with all these control panels and we get
a pretty unique view of the interislander ferry as we enter the
tricky navigation of the Marlborough Sounds this is when we get outside to
get a better look at this beautiful section of the South Island
There's Mountains that look like they're just emerging from the sea absolutely covered
in forest and this has to be one of the highlights of this ferry crossing between
Wellington and Picton
the Marlborough sounds is world famous for being one of the most peaceful place on
earth as the ferry glides through the sound it looks like nothing has moved
for centuries and the land is absolutely undisturbed usually you can see a lot of
dolphin pods and also orcas but on this very cruise we actually saw none of
those aside from just a few birds one lonely dolphin that we didn't get to
film and as we enter the more inner part of the sounds we get to go on top of the
ferry and that's something that just asked the captain when we're in the
bridge can I please go all the way up top to get the best view and he said
yeah yeah all right you can go up there so Laura and I get to spend the entrance of
picton right on top of the ferry that's absolutely amazing we have amazing views
from all around but especially from the top of the ferry where there's all these
equipment that I'm sure we shouldn't really be playing around with but it's
an awesome place to get a view of picton as we arrive officially into the South
Island this is the gateway to the South Island and the weather here is
absolutely beautiful which Marlborough the region we're
approaching is famous for it is the sunniest place in New Zealand
this is it we are setting foot on the South Island for the first time in this
trip and the little fisherman's village of picton has a lot to offer we are not
going to be leaving picton quickly we are going to be spending time here showing
you all that it has to offer and first Laura and I sit down on the front of the
harbor and are watching the seal colony until dusk.
We are heading to the epic South Island. To tell you how epic that is the first city we are going to be landing in is Epicton!