Day 38 moving on to wellington

Wed 7th feb
We had a late checkout agreed which was lovely.We were booked on the evening ferry to Wellington from Picton and although it would take us a couple of hours to get there from Nelson, we could spend the morning where we were.  We walked into town visiting the cathedral on the way. It had a Mario themed journey to the star up in the roof which was very different!

 I got a hair cut and Jono intended to get a coffee and find replacement  water bottles. His phone died on him just as we got in, it's been doing that a lot recently, generally at inconvenient times like when he's  trying to take a photo or in the middle of navigating somewhere. He decided to walk back and pick up the spare phone but by the time he'd  done that I was out.
We had lunch and visited the Japanese garden which was a little overgrown and in need of some tlc then set out on the road to Picton.

The road was curvy and went through some beautiful scenery. We stopped at Havelock and went for a walk up to the scenic lookout which wasn't  far, only 500m, but the views on to the sounds one way and onto Havelock the other way were wonderful.

One of nz big exports, timber

Main highway but the bridges are one lane only

Approaching a one lane bridge

Looking down to Havelock

View onto the sound

We carried on taking the scenic route until we reached the bay we'd finished our kayaking trip when we arrived in Picton almost 3 weeks ago. We were keen to see eagle rays again so we stopped at Ngakuta bay and went paddling. The water was really warm but the mud underneath sometimes sank under foot just a little bit more than felt safe.

that's me, the spec in the distance

Just a short ride from here to Picton to catch the 6:45 Interislander ferry to Wellington. We ate onboard and then went and took our last look at South Island as we sailed slowly through the Sounds.

We'd chosen a different AirBnb this time as we wanted to be closer to Weta workshops which are on the far left side of Wellington so we didn't have to deal with any morning traffic. It was late when we arrived, around 22:30 and although we had a code to let ourselves in, our hostess came to make sure we had everything we needed and to welcome us.

It was compact but gorgeous.