22 Jan 2011
Marlborough sounds & Queen Charlotte Sounds
We woke up that morning with a little hope to see some people in the streets of wellington. But it was sleeping even by 10 am. Our Interislander ferry (actually a ship) which transports everything (yes – everything) from north island to south and vice versa was scheduled to depart at 10:30 am. We reached Wellington Interislander port around 9:30. It was windy and every touch of the wind, reminded the place geographically. Check-in process was quite simple. Go there, show the ticket, dump the luggage and collect the boarding pass.
A little about Interislander ferry
There are two operators ferry passengers, vehicles (including trucks), poultry and what not from north island (Wellington) to Picton of South Island. Its 70 Kms in distance but takes 3 hours. I underestimated the distance and was wondering why would it take 3 hours to cross. My ferry took extra 30 mins and there was need for that. Wind was trying to keep the vessel at the same point all times. It was fierce. I would have loved spend the entire time near the nose provided the wind wasn’t that harsh. But it was. It costs 150 NZ$ for two and am sure gonna wonder how cheap it is when I read after retirement. Bluebridge is the other ferry operator here. I have no information about that. 🙁 Herd chooses Interislander and I went with the herd. Literally, with real herd too.
Interislander has two classes and the higher end club-class offers better seating arrangement and nice views. Go for it. Its worth rather than travelling 3 tiring hours while sun tries to sneak through the glass windows. Heard there goes a free drink as well. I would have opted for that by hearing (Nothing beats New Zealand wine!) . After a little walk from the harbor, we were welcomed in-to-the ship. Got a seat and rested my DSLR bag, and the laptop bag with which each other competes weighing better than the other. Luxury of technology doesn’t come cheaper or easier. My DSLR itself weighs too much after a good 30 mins over the neck. Quality of the picture and the comments from my friends gives inspiration to carry that to the next trip. We were hell tired right in the morning due to jet lag (NZ is 5 hours ahead of Singapore). She went into a deep sleep on a dining table while I tried to explore the vessel. Vessel is quite simple. Lower decks are for poultry or cars (Rental cars are mostly these days avoided by tourists as car rentals give alternative options). Middle deck is for passengers and a cafe which serves pretty much of anything you can eat. Upper desk is more elegant and built for leisure travelers.
I tried to do many things or my thoughts were running with full brain utilization about the driving of that evening. Will come back to that.
I went to the top deck and wondered if wind could be any stronger. In a best case scenario, I was able to face that wind for 10 seconds, not more than that. Came back to the lower deck and tried to close my eyes. When I felt like my Jeans was pressed with an iron box, opened my eyes not to find iron box but the sunshine from the glass window. By the time, ship was at the open sea and could see nothing but blue. After my many ways of thinking to kill time, hills started to appear from nowhere like mushrooms. They were beautiful with grass. Few rarely had trees. Learned by the map that we had entered Queen Charlotte Sound. Well, you gonna hear “Sound” many times here in these articles. Little definition. Sounds are created by Glacier ravines. Or in long, ice capped mountains push excess ice (hardpressed snow) all the way down to the landscape.
These running waters created quick deep cuts and merged with sea. So these places look like sliced. Well, actually these are not sounds. Sounds are made by rivers. So if the damage is done by Glacier Ice? Its called Fiord (fjord). The word was not existed in English by that time. So they called sounds and still retain those names which are actually Fiords. From Aerial view, these mushroom type hills from the sea looks like some ravage. And the Maori (Local Tribes or Natives of New Zealand) relate this to a fight of their hero with a giant octopus in the sea. As per their myth, these clumsy hills were the outcomes of their hero’s try to find grip over the land. Maori’s made stories about the entire New Zealand region so that they know complete details of the geography with their stories. This is the only story known to me. But those natives, had their way to mark their lands with interesting stories which they passed on.
Queen Charlotte sound has a track which might offer spectacular views on good days. New Zealand has so many tracks and most of them lost from 5 to 15 days of walk. I bet its worth every minute. Just have to choose the right track.
Little later, our ship entered Marlborough sounds which almost looked same and in no time, Picton was visible.
I had better thoughts about how it looked. It looked like a sleepy mountain village and exactly it was. My heart started to throb faster as my luxury of depending on a pilot or sailor came to an end and I have to drive my car from then on.
Ferry tucked itself very quick into the channel and locked itself so that the vehicles can go without zig-zags. We came out and I was looking for Apex car rentals booth. It was right before luggage collection belt. They had my reservations, so they quickly pulled it. I proved my driving capability by showing my license. She handed over me the car key and shown a sexy brand new looking cherry red Toyota Corolla. Thats it. I was trying to gain conscious, confidence etc while Thenmozhi was haggling to get the heavy suitcases.
Little confession time. I never drove a car so for without supervision. I learned car driving 5 years ago in Bangalore and all I recollect is, myself and shiva (sivaranjini) did one useful thing in Bangalore and that is this. Vijay himself didn’t have much confidence on me to let me drive the car in the Bangalore. I did drive on a rainy day and a auto driver banged the rear which gave some scratches. That dampened my leftover confidence. Well, New Zealand is full of tourism and all depend on how good you drive. Still I chose this and rented the car. Now you know how I would have thought when the lady handed over the car key to me. As usual cant really afford to show your weakness especially in front of your wife, we dragged our luggage all the way to the open parking lot. Weather was at its dullest and it was the only car with that lovely color. Rest all looked ash or white. We settled our luggage in the boot and took a quick tour (yes – tour) of the car. It was looking brand new by all means. It was a nice feeling to stand nearby a car which is ours (at least for the next 10 days).. I was little overwhelmed.
I opened the GPS pack advised it to find the route for Kaiteriteri. While it was looking for at least 7 of the 27 satellites around the earth, the lady from the rentals came by and asked if we need any help. I quickly asked her how to exit the car parking and the direction to Nelson. She gave a choice to chose the highway or a scenic route. I said highway. She gave me complete instruction, but my brain was capable only to observe the route to exit car park. Still I nod my head like as if I reached Nelson already. I got back into the car and luckily my GPS calculated the route. It advised all the right moves for the next 10 days and of course few wrong moves too. Without that, I would have had never had completed any of my plans. My heartiest thanks to the US military for letting this superb technology for all. Car was brand new and I wished to show that am not nervous and tried the FM radio. It worked for a while and grrrrrrr, the signal was gone. I realized later that the GPS chose the scenic route to reach the destination which was shorter too.
It was my first driving and a first-ever driving a sedan. Drive was 210 Kms. With infinite number of hairpin bends and lose-control-and-land-in-ocean curves. What best I could have asked. I drove as much as slow. Whenever I saw somebody from the rear view mirror, I drove fast to find a place align extreme left so that they can overtake me. I said myself, Ï cant drive having somebody right at the a$$. Excuse the language please. We stopped few times for taking photos of that beautiful scenery. Later made our mind as everything looked beautiful to go on without stopping. Queen Charlotte drive was very beautiful and looked extremely beautiful whenever I stole a part of a second not to look at the road.
Download Marlborough Sounds slides here
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