Wellington and Nelson

Our day in Wellington was near perfect—beautiful blue skies and 70 degrees (sorry friends in the US).  We began the day with a 3+-mile walk from the ship, through the harbor area and into the downtown of Wellington. It’s a lovely city. In the afternoon we boarded a bus and headed to Pencarrow Station.

Wellington Harbor is roughly shaped like a question mark, with Wellington at the end of the hook. We drove around the bay to the harbor entrance on the east side. The harbor entrance is less than half a mile wide, contains rocks sticking up on both sides and experiences significant winds and currents through the Cook Strait between the North and South Islands. So entering the harbor is not an easy task. Picture 1 shows the harbor entrance from the east side.

Pencarrow Station is a good-sized farm, where they raise sheep and cattle and dabble a bit in the tourism business. As the views in Pictures 2 and 3 show, it has a commanding view of the Harbor entrance and Cook Strait.  We watched sheep shearing and sheep herding as shown in pictures 4 and 5. They use 2 types of herding dogs. One large mixed breed (some lab and Doberman plus other stuff) is used to make lots of noise and drive away. The sheep are not penned, so this dog is taken up in the hills and drives the sheep back toward “home”. The smaller mixed breed (border collie and something) then quietly collects them at “home” and herds them into a tight group to be penned. One of these good sheep dogs sells for about $5000.

The cattle also are not penned and, as picture 6 shows, wander anywhere—even to the beach.

We also sampled wonderful local cheeses and wines. Good day!

That night we crossed the Cook Strait, arriving at Nelson, on the South Island, the next morning. Nelson is a small city (40,000) and the arrival of our ship was big doings!  Not many people drop by Nelson! A picture of our ship was prominently displayed on the daily 16-page newspaper. We ran into some local people, who immediately asked “Are you on that beautiful ship?”  Crowds gathered on the dock for our arrival and departure.

The area is known for its fruit, hops, vineyards and 3 national parks. We visited the Abel Tasman National Park and hiked a couple miles, part of a 5-day hike through the park.  The National Park can only be reached by foot or boat, so we picked up a local boat (wet landings) that toured us through the bays in the park and then dropped us at a site appropriately called Anchorage.

We hiked through lush vegetation, as shown in Picture 7, on a trail that was clay and gravel and STEEP! It would have been nasty in the rain. Our first stop was Pitt Head, where we took pictures 8 and 9. Picture 8 actually shows Anchorage, where we landed, while picture 9 looks north, up the coast, deeper into the park. As you can see, we had a dry, but gloomy day, which was good for hiking, but not so good for pictures.

After much up and down, we arrived at the beach in picture 10 for a picnic lunch, before heading back through the woods to Anchorage.

On to Australia! We’re currently on a 3-day sail across the Tasman Sea, which is notoriously rough. Fortunately, it’s smooth today, but we expect rougher seas tonight.