South Island - Ferry and Kaikoura

You know you are an idiot when....you know you get seasick, but check your luggage containing the dramamine. Yes. The Ferry from Wellington to Picton was the worst sea crossing of my life, which I know isn't saying much, but damn it was rough. Sarah, who never gets seasick, got queasy on this one.

At first we we standing on the decks, which made things a lot easier, but then they had to close the decks because the winds and the waves were so rough so I literally sat in the window, so I could at least watch the waves, which did seem to help. Once we got between the mountains, though, the seas became much calmer, and I was able to grab a few photos on the deck.

After we arrived in Picton, Sarah and I picked up our rental car - a cute white Nissan, and we began the drive to Kaikoura. The scenery is already amazing, and it was great to see such a juxtaposition of landscapes - soft rolling hills against sharp majestic peaks, which ended at the sea with great green ocean breakers crashing against them.

However, the morning of rough waves and the afternoon of winding hills made me very, very queasy. When we arrived in Kaikoura and found our hostel, The Albatross, I took a dramamine and crashed for several hours. I felt much better when I woke up and Sarah and I made dinner. Michael was kind enough to share the mussels he cooked, which I did try, thank you very much. It was an interesting experience, lol.

A guy from Saudia Arabia then engaged Sarah and I in a conversation about the meaning of life, which went on and on and on. I was in the middle of composing a fantastic escape plan, when he got up to pay for his juice and then we seized the opportunity and fled. I later came out to watch a few rounds of chess between Michael, Becky, and Dominick, who then suggested that we take a night hike to the observation post to watch the stars.

I thought this was a fantastic idea, and luckily it was not very cold last night and so we walked for about a mile and saw the most stars I had ever seen in my life. It was absolutely beautiful. The moon was pretty bright, which dimmed some stars, but when you turned around to look at the moon, you could see the snowy mountain peaks in the moonlight. I was able to see the Southern Cross, the constellation on both the New Zealand and Australian flags. We also saw three shooting stars, but, and I'm well aware of how corny this sounds, I found myself having a hard time thinking of something to wish for.