Off to the ferry.
Having had a fantastic time with the penguins we set off the next day slightly inland to see Mount Cook across a lake. The trip was really interesting seeing a vast limestone gorge and the Elephant rocks, so called believe it or not , because one of the rocks looks a little like an elephant head.
We had lunch with the van backed o to the lake looking across it to Mount Cook glistening in the sunshine. We camped the night at Fairlie which took all of ten minutes to walk around. We were going out for a beer but couldn't find anywhere we really liked , so returned to the van for a beer there. The next day was a long drive to Kaiakoura about 400 kilometres through some scenic countryside along surprisingly the "inland scenic route".
At Kaiakoura we were eventually defeated by the weather as rain set in for the evening. It could have waited until we were safely back in the van but no, it had to rain whilst we walking around the town and so we returned to the van slightly bedraggled. As we spent the night ensconced in the van dodging the rain there is not really a great deal to report. The expedition commander was a little disappointed that she had to wear her raincoat for the first time in five months. Secretly I think she was hoping she could get through the whole holiday without using it, but such is the high quality of New Zealand rain that she was forced into a situation where she had to put it on.
We are now in a situation where we have fallen in love with the Vanessa in all of her capricious moods and we don't want to give her up. It has been a strange relationship, we started out not really liking the size of her but as time has passed we have grown to love her and in the rain we have revelled in the space. As we get closer to Picton and having to give her back we are getting sadder and sadder. Tomorrow we have a 150 kilometres to drive to Picton and it will be a sad day.