Day 11 Inter-islander
ferry from Wellington to Picton
The major plan for today was to get the ferry from
Wellington to Picton. The reason I spent so little time in Wellington was that
I had made a mistake when booking the bus. I was meant to have the bus for the
afternoon of the Saturday after being on the ferry bright and early. For some
reason the booking I made was at 9am in the morning. I had to book the ferry
for the day before, which I made for the afternoon around 230pm. This suited me
better in many ways.
I got up early with the plan to have breakfast, check out
and then head for the Archives to look at the last of my information. The only
problem I ended up having was that one bank of lockers had been turned off and
the reception did not actually know this. I had lost some money and was getting
frustrated at the second lot of stupidity with the hostel. I let them know,
calmly and they gave me my money back. I was then able to place my bags in the
locker and then be off. I don’t know if they rectified the problems after I
left. The morning was busy with people everywhere since they were in the city
to head off to their various workplaces.
The national archives was open when I turned up and had been
for only a matter of minutes. The very first record I had ordered several days
before was waiting for me and that was when I found a minor problem for me and
a major one for the archives. The probate record I had ordered was that of
William Hogg Watt. The probate contained was actually that of some other person
from Wanganui and when I pointed this out the person of Greig could not be
found. They are going to try and fix the records to get them in the correct
order. I learnt that it was alright to take pictures of the records with your
camera and that was what I ended up doing or else the records would oast me $15
per page due to the size being A2. I did find plenty of information on my great
great grandfather who was a fire fighter in Palmerston North and also something
differet, a joint will by two brothers. Different and will be getting copies of
them. The research I did for a friend didn’t pan out as the records existed in
a newspaper and never did through the archives. They might be within the town
eg not the council archives. I do love searching through the New Zealand
archives and did get the various readings into a folder about what is available
within the archives. There is a book in available that has records that have
been found and I will look into this book.
After going to the archives I made my way to the bus stop
where I would be catching a bus to the ferry terminal. The bus was actually an
hour away, so I did something the website did not recommend and I walked to the
ferry terminal. It was actually a fair hike to the terminal and could be done.
Another thing I did not know until later was there is actually another ferry
company and terminal in front of where I was staying. I did set a brisk pace
that took around half an hour to end up at the departure lounge of the ferry
terminal and I sorted out my bags before checking in. There was at least 3
ferry services left for the day and mine was the first one to leave in the
afternoon. The annoying part was at least 40 kids came with their teachers to
wait to travel on the ferry too. This meant I was at one stage surrounded by
kidlings who were loud and on either side had two kids with guitars singing in
a small group. At least I had pie and coffee earlier that made me feel heaps
better.
The trip aboard the ferry was not too bad from the start and
was nice and sunny with a slight breeze. Wellington looked beautiful from the
harbour as we left and we could even see the South Island with several peaks
with snow. By the time we reached the straight and there was very little land
for protection then the wind sprang up and was very strong and I decided to
download my camera and read a book as it was actually pretty cold up top. The
crew were doing their musters from abandoning ship to other drills. The trip
became calmer once we entered the Queen Charlotte Sounds at the beginning to
where we would end up in Picton. Picton did look nice from a distance and I had
ended up for the last hour of the trip on the bow of the boat enjoying the sun,
my book and the area. Once off, I went looking for my hostel and I was across
the road from it when a lady told me that I there and that it had changed its
name the name went from Picton Lodge to the Fat Cod. If it ends up being The
Blue Oyster I am running away. I do have a train line at the back of this place
too.
After doing a load of washing that needed to be done and the
fact I had selected Picton as the place to do this. I dont think I could have
made Christchurch without clean clothes. Something I did discover was that
behind the hostel is actually the train line that takes you to Christchurch and
whatever else the local rail takes to the cities of New Zealand. I think it
would be cool and next door happens to be a pub with part of the train station
too. Not a big station and just seems small. I did take a wander before it
became too dark and ended up with a blue cod and chips for dinner facing the
water. I was being attacked by some big sand flies too. Could be why some
people were in long pants and shirts. This area of Picton is where people start
their long hikes and you can see why they do this. I did ask about local cemeteries
with the hostel owner and he had no idea. Could cemetery visits be something
people would want to plan as part of their trips?
Tip
Make sure you know that a place has changed its name.
Hopefully a local will tell you. I could have walked halfway to Christchurch.
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