Sunday, August 10, 2003

To the South Island!

Up about 8:00, showered, breakfast, packed everything into the car and left the hostel about 9:15, drove to Lower Hutt (suburb of Wellington) to find a supermarket, since I never did see one in downtown Wellington. Lower Hutt is about a 10 minute drive along the motorway. Sure enough, a Countdown store rears it's head, so I pull in and top up (everything seemed to run out at once). Then headed back to Strait Shipping (the name of their ferry service is BlueBridge) and found their "ferry terminal" (presently housed in a temporary building while a new ferry terminal is constructed), got there about 10:30, checked in, and had 1.5 hours to kill, so walked downtown, used internet at Visitor's Centre for a short while, then walked back to ferry terminal and waited.

Ferry left about 12:50 (ahead of schedule!). The ship is not a "normal" ferry boat. It's HUGE, has 4 vehicle decks, and they have a small cafe area and a small dining room, and they have "quiet rooms", rooms with beds, so you can shut the door and take a nap. They are doing a $1 million dollar refit of the vessel, tearing out a whole bunch of the sleeping quarters (that were in use in France) and making a big dining area, holding as many of 500 passengers. It could be a complete different ship when I return in a few weeks.

Got to Picton about 4:15, drove around town looking for The Villa Backpackers (I had made a reservation earlier in the day), and checked in. Nice place. REcommended by Let's Go, and also another couple heard good things about it when I was in Wellington, and they recommended it also. The hostel has free breakfasts in the morning, and has free apple crumb with ice cream in the evenings, and a hot tub. I was in a big 4-bed dorm room all by myself.

Watched ending of "Full Monty" in the TV room (last hour or so), made supper, ate it, then went out back and sat around the wooden fireplace with a couple of others, then about 6:30, put my trunks on and relaxed in the hot tub for half an hour, then went to the TV room and watched part of "The Piano", then at 7:30, they brought the freshly baked apple crumb to the kitchen, and everyone queued for hot apple crumb and ice cream. Homemade. It was to die for!!

After that, walked around Picton in the dark. Nice town, not much happening on a Sunday evening, though. Although, there's probably not much happening any night of the week, unless maybe there's an All Blacks game on in the pub or something.

Back to the hostel, sat out back around the wood fireplace, and read for a while, then chatted with a guy who works at the hostel. It was his last day working there, after 1.5 years. He was German, and is not sure where he's gonna go next. Then talked with a German girl (lots of Germans at this hostel), then when it got too cold out, moved inside to the TV room and watched the last half of "The Last of the Mohicans", then to bed.

I really like this hostel!

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