IV. Touring the North Island
We said good-bye to Alan and Cheryl and made tentative
plans to meet for dinner in Havelock (Greenshell Mussel Capital) that evening.
They caught up with us in Havelock in time to have an outstanding seafood
dinner at The Clansman (Scottish pub). They left for Picton afterwards in
their campervan to board the ferry for a very early crossing to the north
island. We stayed the night in Havelock and drove to Picton where we dropped
off our car and boarded "The Lynx" ferry to cross over to Wellington where
we would pick up our campervan for a ten day tour of the north island.
The last we saw of the south island was from the deck
of the ferry out of Picton. The small islands and fingers of land that reach
out into Cook Strait were the outer reaches of Marlborough Sounds
The crossing was uneventful and quiet, though we heard
that the schedule of ferry crossings was interrupted a few days later by
violent winds and stormy weather. In fact, the southern part of the north
island was hit with nearly unprecedented rain and flooding that caused houses,
livestock, and people to be swept away in a disaster similar to the floods
in the upper midwest and Mississippi River valley.
