Grand Tour South II

23rd December
Overnight rain showed that the new windscreen although lovely and clear, was not very well sealed and the weather looked like it was going to supply some more wet stuff before too long. With the top up we made our way to Wellington. We passed big queues heading North from the city, the evening news said there had been up to four hour delays, we were glad we were heading south. The ferry was not until 8pm so we had a chance to look round Te Papa. Dulcie who was not looking forward to the crossing, got even more nervous when we saw footage of the Wahine disaster on one of the displays.
Check in for the ferry was at 7pm and we joined the queue waiting to get aboard. The ferry was very efficient, in no time we were clanking over the steel ramps up onto the second deck and parked in the hold of the BlueBridge ferry Santa Regina. Double checking my handbrake and hoping the cars in front and back had done the same, we made our way upstairs. Looking over someone’s shoulder I saw newspaper headlines telling of 9 metre swells in Cook Strait the previous day. I showed it to Dulcie then wished I hadn’t. I was sure the weather had calmed and it would be all right but Dulcie wasn’t convinced. With everyone aboard, the ferry set off 20 minutes early. It was calm in Wellington harbour, and although outside the heads it was blowing 25 knots fortunately the seas had abated and we had a reasonably smooth crossing, docking at around 11.00pm and getting to our Picton motel shortly after.