Across The Great Divide

We arrived at Picton the day after our encounters with the sperm whales, a town much underrated in the guide books, presumably because it is the home of the monolithic Interislander car ferry terminal. Actually, the high street and port area are rather charming. The bay is surrounded by sweeping mountains and fronted by a well-kept grassy parkland and a tidy little pleasure craft marina containing a variety of tour barges, water taxis, speed boats, flying boats and the usual panopoly of personal yachts.

We spent the first night here so I have to recount yet another Kiwi Timeslip moment that most of you will appreciate. We found out where all the old bikers go (if you accept Andy's conjecture that all the young bikers are doing foolish things in other countries at this time in their lives). They are all at a certain bar in Picton easily identifiable by the long hair, leather waistcoats, tattoos, bigger-than-life personalities and expansive gestures. The Timeslip that Ginge especially will love is the juke box: no Britpop, Hip-Hop, Rap, Boy Bands; just good 'ol 30-year-old Rock. We had a few sundowners over a wealth of Floyd, Zeppelin, AC/DC, Purple, Skynyrd, . . . (you get the idea) tracks. You can imagine how we elderly British types fitted into the local tattooed clientele, sat in a corner of the beer garden reading our sci-fi books, heads nodding to the background noise. After far too many sundowners Linda suggested we get some food (presumably because I was developing some expansive gestures of my own) . . . Yeah Man!

The next day we said goodbye to South Island and our faithful car as they will not allow hired cars to cross the Islands (mostly for insurance and logistical reasons). But they made the whole operation simple and painless; the Avis station was alongside the ferry check in both sides of the channel. We merely took the bags out of the car and booked them on the boat, retrieving them and an identical car at the other end with a minimum of fuss and paperwork. The journey was three hours long, the first hour travelling past the various inlets and bays of Picton before hitting open sea and the last hour giving us a view of the approach to Wellington. All very civilised.