November 13, 2015
57: Quick stop in Richmond, Nelson
I'm so glad I brought my MEC coat. This morning was cold around 10°C and not with the wind chill. I guess I should get used to it soon enough, because I'll be back in Toronto in less than a month!
We woke up around 7am to get ready for our ride on the ferry to Picton at 8:50am. We're actually heading to Nelson to meet Keri's mom's friend, Carey! We're heading to her before she goes on a bike trip in Christchurch. So, we'll explore Wellington in a few days.
We walked out around 8am and it was raining. Finally, my umbrella comes in handy (ongoing joke that I won't ship it home and won't be using it till Canada)! We walked to the Wellington Train Station to board the shuttle bus to the Interislander Ferry. The ferry was part of our flexipass system as well. Like the other bus rides, the hours get deducted.
The ferry is a 3 hour ride to Picton. We had our bags checked in and walked on board. It was a pretty big ferry for cars, trucks and people. We found a nice seating area near the back of the boat and had a nice view! We entertained ourselves, split a breakfast meal and played rummy, a card game.
When we got to Picton, Carey was waiting for us at the ferry terminal! We got our luggage off the carousel and got in her car. Off we go to Nelson!
The drive to Nelson was nice. We had the fantastic scenic route the whole way to Nelson. Also, there were more bendy roads than Hong Kong! There were less tunnels through New Zealand, that I noticed. All the vehicles tend to drive around them or over them.
We made several pit stops on our way to Nelson like stopping by the Forest River and eating at the Pelorus Bridge Café. We had a delicious meat pie lunch! I had a mussel flavoured one, and it was delicious!
We chatted a bit and headed to Nelson. Nelson is a pretty nice place! But, where we were going was Richmond which is near Nelson. Funny enough, we were in the Hills area. So, the area we're staying at is Richmond Hills, not where my parents are though!
A cool fact is that the house we were staying at used to be a Buddhist resort apparently! It has really nice wood work and decent earthquake proof. Keri skyped with his parents while I was entertained by the house cat, Effie (not sure if it was spelled right).
After Skyping, we chatted a bit with John (Carey's husband) and had dinner. Dinner was delicious! We had salad with bits and pieces from the garden like lettuce and marigold flowers. There were toasted seeds and discovered a delicious salad dressing that they had called caramelized onions! Yum! We also had chicken and potatoes.
I crashed after dinner while Keri continued chatting with John and Carey. I was really tired.