Able Tasman Natl. Park, the Cook Strait, and Wellington

Though we wanted to get an early start today, my buddy Dave was having a bit of an issue with his new camcorder, so it took some time to find an electronics shop and get that resolved.  On top of that, the road to Able Tasman is somewhat challenging - narrow, hilly, and twisting.  Put yourself in a 6-person motor-home while driving on the wrong side of the road, and it can be a little scary.  It's also the opposite direction from Picton, so we'll have to back-track.  But what the heck, this is probably the only time that we're going to get a chance to see it the Able Tasman National Park.

That's our motor-home above.  A 6-person configuration works pretty well for four rugby guys.

Looking east across the Tasman Bay and back toward Nelson, the mountains on the horizon are over 30 miles away.

It's about a 2 1/2 hour drive from Able Tasman to Picton, the port city were we're going to drive our motor-home onto the 6:00 pm ferry to Wellington.  The total fare for a vehicle and 4 passengers was something like $400, and since it's World Cup time, reservations are very limited.  It's a 4-hour cruise across the Cook Straight, and if we miss this boat, we'll probably miss the first two rugby matches in Auckland this weekend.  So, we didn't get to spend much time here at Able Tasman, but what we did see was beautiful.

The last several miles of the road to Picton is a beautiful twisty run along the Grove Arm of the Queen Charlotte Sound.  The boat ride through the sound and out into the Cook Straight is supposed to be magnificent.  Picton itself, however, seemed like a gritty little town, and when we got to the ferry landing, we found out that the boat was running 4 hours late.  Instead of arriving in Wellington at 10:00 pm, it now looks like it's going to be 2:00 am!

We walked over to the tourist area of downtown Picton, which was really quite nice, and found our way into the Picton RSA Club, which is kind of like a Veterans' lodge.  The RSA was founded by World War I vets, so it was full of old military guys.  We found a guy to "sponsor" our entry, and we enjoyed a good meal, cheep beer, and made a few friends.  

The 4-hour crossing turned into the trip from hell.  If I had know better, would have stayed in the motor-home and slept, but you're not really allowed to do that.  The passenger decks are pretty nice, and there's a bar and a few places to eat, but it's no different that being in an airport at 2:00 am.  Nobody really wants to be there.