We took the Interislander Ferry between Picton and Wellington today (to get us from the south island to the north island of New Zealand), but we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. We learned (at the END of our 4 hour ferry ride – too late) that the waters are rougher in the winter months (remember NZ’s seasons are opposite of the US’s seasons).
Dan knows he has a tendency to get motion sick so he took some medicine as a precautionary measure, but I didn’t take anything since I don’t normally have a problem. The ride started out smooth and we were enjoying our conversations on board the boat, but then we started to see and feel the boat go up and down as we crashed into the waves. We could even see the water splashing the sides of the windows of the ferry. Now . . . before you start thinking that this was a small boat let me clear that up — we were on a large ferry (large enough to have many cars stored on board and large enough to have cafes/stores/etc.), so to see the water splashing as high as our windows was a surprise to us and to our stomachs. It was so rough that the stores had to close down in order to tend to the sick passengers. Luckily neither of us got sick, but we were too close for comfort for several hours!
The interislander ferry in Picton