Greetings from Windy Wellington1

Nothing lasts forever does it? We spent our last night on the south island in Picton, which is another little gem. It's a tiny little place nestled on the shores of the Tasman Sea and surrounded by mountains. The day we arrived had been hot and sunny but by the time we got settled into our motel and went to find dinner ( in a little Irish pub) it had started to rain. We went for a walk to Shelley beach after dinner to do a little beach combing. They have this long bridge that goes over the marina from the town to the beach that the locals call the coat hanger. I got some great pictures of Ian on it. As everyone knows, Ian doesn't do bridges. We also stopped by the local R.S.A. club for a drink and had a good chat with a few of the locals. They are all so welcoming. They just come over to find out who you are and where you are from. It was the first time anyone knew right off the bat that we were Canadians.

So, it poured rain all night and blew a gale. too bad we left the windows down on the car. The plan was to do more beach combing in the morning. There is beautiful Paua (abalone) shell everywhere for sale but I want to find my own on the beach. Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate. The ferry didn't leave until 2:00 p.m. so we had quite a bit of time to kill. We were very disappointed in the ferry crossing also as we had hoped to get good pictures of the scenery but you couldn't even see a horizon. The crossing took 4 hours instead of 3 1/2 I guess due to the roughness of the waters. While on the ferry I discovered that I had lost one of my gold hoop earrings. I informed them on the boat and I retraced my steps but it could have fallen out anywhere.

When we arrived in Wellington (now we know why they call it Windy) the weather was of course terrible. Ian said it made Orkney look like Palm Springs. (A bit of an exaggeration) We went the Fireman's club for a pizza dinner and then back to our motel for an early night. When we got back to our room I found that I had left my camera in the club.  I sent an e-mail right away and we will go there right away when they open Hopefully it's still there. We were the last people to leave so it should be. What a day!

Today we are going to head north looking for better weather, although it doesn't look very good anywhere. Hopefully we'll see Rotarua in the next day or so.

Chow for now.