North Island to South Island

This morning in Wellington, John and I rode a cable car up a hill a few blocks.  When we exited at the top, we were at the start of a beautiful, impressive botanical garden.  During our entire very steep descent, we were walking through beautiful woods, or gardens of shrubs or plants or flowers.  I'm so happy we didn't miss that attraction.

Wellington Cable Car

Pretty shady bed in the Botanical Garden

We saw lots of pretty roses in NZ.

As I wrote yesterday, Wellington is the capital of New Zealand.  In the middle of the downtown are the Parliament buildings--the executive building (the "Beehive"), the legislative building, and the Parliament Library.  We had a brief tour of these three buildings.  now, if I ever see the Beehive on the news, I'll know I was inside it.

In the afternoon, we left Wellington by boarding a huge ferry for the three-hour crossing to the South Island. This ride was everything I hoped it would be, and more.  The scenery through Marlborough Sound was spectacular as we approached the South Island--blue and turquoise water; high, green hill after hill, some of them topped with white clouds; and, one inlet after another, just to show it all off.  I'm so happy the weather was perfect today.

Our ferry went from Wellington (on the right) to Picton (on the left).

Pretty scenery on our ferry ride across               Marlborough Sound










Oh, by the way, our tour bus driver and guide, John, said goodbye to us in Wellington.  he does tours only on the North Island.  A new driver, Ricky, was waiting for us when we docked in Picton on the South Island.  He's part Maori, so I'm sure we'll be hearing about the Maori culture as we ride along for the next 10 days.  We also said goodbye to six of our fellow passengers.  They had booked only the North Island part of the trip.  Tomorrow evening, we'll meet ten new people who will join us for the South Island tour.

We're spending the night in Blenheim, on the Pacific Coast.