Off to Picton & North Island

One last photo in Kaikoura, me on yet another beach

The drive up the coast was spectacular but not as rugged as the western seaboard. The beaches seemed to be mainly shingle although we saw one of black sand. We passed a road sign showing sea lions or seals, that said next 4kms so they must come up on to the road. Not today though, nary a one. The coast was rocky with big swathes of sea weed washing about near the shore.
We left the shore as the road turned inland towards Blenheim. We stopped there for lunch and a bitty walk round. It started to rain as we got out of the car, but not hard enough to wear a coat, that is until we had got far enough away from the car to ensure we would be really wet. Fran wasn't really happy wandering around the shops and had his eye on his watch all the time. We had coffee in a little mall with a glass roof and read the paper and listened to the rain that had become very heavy. Fran was wanting to be off. He had swopped our Sunday 2.30pm crossing for one at 1.15 on Saturday afternoon because he had got his days mixed up and thought we were going back on Saturday. Mum and I knew it was Sunday, but hey! whatever. We weren't driving. Arrived at Picton at 11.50pm and drove straight to the port. It wasn't worth going into town as we had to be at the terminal for 12.30. It turned out we ended up sitting in the boarding lane for an hour and a half because there was some sort of unspecified problem. Never did find out what. The ship was much bigger than the one one we had arrived on and we were put on the lower deck with the lorries. Fran spotted an old sign on the wall that said P & O Portsmouth. It was a recycled ferry! It was a lot plusher than Monday's boat, we were hungry and charged off to deck 8 for some lunch. Afterwards Fran headed off to find a recliner, Mum went up on deck and I just crossed to a cumfy seat near the viewing windows and spent the three hours catching up on my diary and gazing at the scenery.