All written well after the event again, I'm afraid and still trying to catch up. I'm writing this in a B&B at Christchurch on 19th November. Anyway, here goes, trying to pick up the story at Wellington.

Impressions of Wellington; much smaller than we'd expected, but nice, surrounded by steep hills, with some very pretty late Victorian and Edwardian houses, especially along the seafront, all timber with verandahs. We spent most of our stay here walking around the seafront and the museum. The weather was sunny in the main, but there was a wicked wind blowing from the south, a bit like the mistral, that throws dust in your eyes and makes your teeth ache. Had a not very good meal at a French restaurant which was also expensive, by NZ standards.

On the afternoon of the 3rd November we reported to the ferry terminal at Wellington for the crossing to the South Island, which took about three hours, less than a hour to leave the harbour behind, about another hour to cross the Cook Straights and about an hour steaming up the Queen Charlotte Sound (in the Tory Channel) to Picton. The scenery in the Queen Charlotte Sound is magnificent, with wooded hills dropping straight into the sea on boths sides. From Picton to our B&B in Nelson (by the quick route not the scenic one) arriving at about eight o'clock in the evening.

The pictures show (1) me, on the waterfront at Wellington, standing in front of an old steam floating crane and (2) the sun, detail from a modern Maori meeting-house built within the museum.