Just a short 23km drive from Blenheim to Koromiko – this is where our South Island Odyssey started back in mid December, all those weeks ago. This is a beautiful place, surrounded by totara trees, and the cicadas were having a fine old time, making plenty of noise in the trees while looking for mates. We were to stay here for two nights while we waited to board the Inter Island Ferry on Thursday.
Koromiko POP
It’s no secret that both ferry companies have been having maintenance problems. We received a text telling us our trip the following day had been cancelled, costs would be refunded, and clients had to get on to the web site and rebook themselves. We had heard of campers waiting several weeks before they could get another booking and cross Cook Strait. What to do? We decided to drive down to the ferry office and front up to a real person. The staff confirmed that our booking for the next day was cancelled, perhaps we would like to go on the standby list for a sailing later in the day? No guarantees that we would get on board of course, but better than waiting weeks.
So back we went to Koromiko, hooked up the caravan and returned to the ferry terminal. The sailing on the Kaiarahi was pushed back later and later, and we were in the queue for seven hours, waiting and waiting…… At least we had the comfort of our caravan to rest, have a light meal, and a toilet on board, not like the few cars behind us in the standby queue. Eventually the queues of cars, caravans and motorhomes started moving forward and then it was the turn of the standby group. Oh no, we were almost turned back at the last minute but that was overruled, and we were sent up a steep ramp and parked up. We had made it!
On board the Kaiarahi
Because we were one of the last vehicles to board, we had a little trouble finding a couple of seats together, but a kind couple moved along and made two seats available for us. We settled down in the lounge in rather comfy seats, and our sailing got underway at 11.00pm. The captain made an announcement apologising for all the delays, and assuring us he had four engines all working – a reference to earlier problems when engines failed and the ships were drifting towards rocks! Everyone settled down in the lounge, some reading, some watching TV, others chatting quietly, and a few snores were heard around the room. The crossing was relatively smooth, just a bit choppy in Cook Strait which left some feeing a little queasy.
Whiling away the hours
Finally, the announcement came to go to our cars, we had arrived in port. We waited our turn, in this case last on certainly meant last off. The rain was falling, the temperatures had dropped dramatically, welcome to Wellington.
Last to leave the ship
We had decided to spend the night at Plimmerton NZMCA Park, and off we went, up the Ngauranga Gorge in heavy rain in the dead of night. At 4.00am we pulled into the park, left the car looked up to the van, opened the caravan door and collapsed into bed. It had been a long day, but we were so relieved to be back in the North Island.
3 comments:
So good you've made it back to the North Island. Interesting that you were able to get in the standby queue - I've been reading posts on the NZMCA private fb group where people have been told not to turn up and queue and others, like you, have been told to do so. I guess it depends how full they think the sailing will be - but I would have expected them all to be jam-packed at the moment!
Safe travels back to Levin - and best wishes for a peaceful sleep in your own bed!
Cheers, Marilyn
An eventful end to your Southern travels. I’m pleased you were able to sneak onto the boat at the last minute. As sad as we are that we cancelled our trip, we are rather relived that we did so. Not only would we have been in the thick of the cyclonic weather, we were booked on the ferry south on this coming Sunday. There may have been issues with that too.
Awesome!! Glad you made it home OK... at least I hope you are home by now...
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