By Ruth
Today it begins: the South Island. We had a busy last morning in Wellington, sending off our bounce boxes at the post office, meeting Steffen (one of our trail friends whom we met in Northlands, and haven’t seen since November) for coffee breakfast, then doing our food resupply for the Queen Charlotte Track, then packing up all our stuff and heading to the ferry terminal.
It was so nice to see Steffen again since he is one of the people who we connected really well with and also tends to walk at a similar pace to us. He was surprised when we told him about our recent difficulties on trail, which was kind of nice to hear: we have been so filled with doubt about if we are suited to the trail or not, and here was someone who thought of us as solid TA walkers. It was a reminder that maybe we could actually get that confidence back. Other than that it was also just great to see him and catch up. It seems like we might be on a similar schedule for the start of the South Island so we are hoping to be seeing him a bit more.
Then, after a blur of activity, Harry was dropping us off at the ferry and we were on our way! Well, not quite. The ferry was scheduled to depart at 1 pm. We got there an hour early to check in, as was required. Then we waited. 1 rolled around and we were still waiting. Eventually at about 2, we were allowed to board. Then we waited some more, this time on the boat. We read (luckily I have a great book downloaded on my e-reader at the moment), ate some lunch, chatted to friends back home, and still we had yet to depart. Finally, at 3:40 pm, we set sail. Several times before we departed they came on the loudspeaker to apologize that the bar would not be open until we started going. But never once did they explain or apologize for the actual massive delay! So weird.
Once we were finally moving it was smooth sailing to Picton. We got lots of good reading in and enjoyed the scenery as the South Island came into view. It was beautiful. We were feeling excited and apprehensive, not too different from how we felt on the drive up to Cape Reinga on Day 1.
