South Island!

Hi there everyone,

We have finally made it to the South Island! We are currently in Blenhiem (the place names are getting a bit more european down here, so a little easier to pronounce, which is a bonus! haha), which is a town below Picton, where the Ferry comes in, and where we stayed last night.

So the past few days since we last blogged have been nice and cruisy, just hanging out with Lara, Sven and the kids, but the time haad eventually come to move on, and get started on the next half of our trip! Lara was nice enough to offer to book our ferry tickets on the internet for us, which meant a lot less hassle, as we were able to just jump on the ferry yesterday, no worries.

It was a pretty neat experience, driving the van onto a huge boat, especially seein as though Boh had mentioned to me that once they forgot to shut the back of the boat (surely they employ soomeone to remember small details like that...) and it sunk! SCARY, but we got over our fear when it hadn't sunk in the first few minutes. We also noticed that a train was driven on to the bottom level which is pretty awesome when you think about it. Apart from feeling a little queasy, which we remedied by sitting up on the deck for most of the time, it was a great trip, as the ferry was really quite coll, with it's own bar, cafe, shop, and CINEMA on board!! Coming into Picton was absolutely beautiful, sailing through the Marlborough Sounds, seeing all the farmland on the side of little mountainous islands, and houses only accessable by boat. Getting into Picton at about 5pm, we headed straight for a campsite, which ended up only being like 800m from the ferry or something, so that was very easy. It was there that we had a bit of a surprise, as we got chatting to an older couple who were in the kitchen area, and when i mentioned that my mum was from Ashburton (one of the places she grew up), he said "oh what's her name, that's where I'm from", and I said Karen Hampton (her maiden name), and he was like "not Lynley and Lochie's Karen?" (this is my aunty and her ex-husband) and I was like wow omg, yes! So it turns out he used to hang out with mum, who was friends with his ex-wife, and he actuially movved to brisbane with my aunty and her then-boyfriend Lochie! And he's really good mates with my Uncle Mark too! CRAAAAZY... So that was pretty insane. Small world huh?

So anyways, having headed out of Picton this morning, we are headed down the east coast of the South Island, and will probably head down through Hanmer Springs, before going on to Christchurch. So it is time to email my rellies there! (If you are reading this Jaz, or Aunty Bren, I will be emailing you in a minute!)

More soon,

xoxox

Unfortunately we were a bit slack in Wellington, and didnt remember to take some photos of Lara and her family, so we just managed to remember to quickly snap one of Bubba and Abe, who were the only ones home (with the nanny, not on their own! lol) when we left. So heres a bunch of photos of the crossing, and some other stuff we have done in the past week or so...

Heres Bubba eating his lunch...

Sven's awesome Jaguar!

Me at this awesome pirate adventure mini golf place we went to.(I won...)

The Ferry coming in to get us.

Boh chowing down a Big Mac on the side of the road...cold...nice.

On the Ferry and going through the Sounds...