What a swell party I’ve had in New Zealand

Graham McKenzie’s NZ Blog

“The journey is the destination,” says InterIslander ferries.

“Wine Spectator calls it ‘one of the most beautiful ferry rides in the world’, and we believe that you will agree wholeheartedly,” they add on their web site.

InterIslander runs its vessels more or less throughout the day and night between the two islands that make up New Zealand.

It is always promoted as ‘the’ ferry journey to beat all as it steams its way from Wellington, meanders through the chicanes of
Marlborough Sounds to the small picturesque harbour town of Picton.

Not when it’s blowing 75kph it doesn’t! Believe me it gets a wee bit bumpy and all you want to do is get to the other end.

Nevertheless you can see the potential of such a journey. The ships are clean, well-appointed and offer very reasonable food and drink (if you can stomach it) and, when you do eventually get to the Sounds, the sea calms and the small numerous islands full of rare birdlife are almost within touching distance.

Marlborough Sounds is one of the top spots to visit on the South Island. Picton/Blenheim is the main base but from where you can easily access the whale watching area of Kaikoura, vineyards such as Cloudy Bay, the larger more developed town of Nelson and the Abel Tasman Sea.

For the more active amongst us sea kayaking in calm, wildlife abundant waters is the order of the day.

I however did not do any of those things. Having spent too much of my allocated time on the North Island I only had two nights/ one full day to utilise on the south.

I chose to travel with Dolphin Watch Eco Tours based on the Picton foreshore for a half-day tour.

This is the way it is sold….‘Cruise the majestic Marlborough Sounds aboard our comfortable vessels on a scenic journey to Motuara Island Bird Sanctuary. Outstanding commentary and fantastic viewing areas allow you to enjoy playful Hector’s, bottlenose, or dusky dolphins (98% encounter rate!), fur seals and numerous seabirds before landing on Motuara Island for a one-hour nature lover’s walk to remember.’

It was excellent…we saw all of the above and more, plus our guides were, as you would expect, very informative and friendly.

If you have limited time this gives you a very good overview of the area. The bird sanctuary island was really weird. Many of the birds have no exposure to mammals of any kind (as they are excluded on purpose from the island) and as a consequence come and literally play with you.

It was not quite Hitchcockesque but at times anybody suffering from ornithophobia would feel distinctly uncomfortable. We were staying in a motel but thankfully not the Bates variety and Norman did not come calling!

Picton has other virtues. Easily accessible nature walks, a museum of the ninth oldest ship in the world (very interesting because of the convict and immigrant angle), lots of – for New Zealand – fairly lively bars and a whole host of reasonable restaurants.

The result was that I wish I had more time and regretted I had none.

On awakening to a much calmer day for the return journey my expectations of the ‘best ferry ride ever’ were high.

Sure enough the sea was calm and in the Sound we saw more dolphins, the view of the islands was clearer and the approach to Wellington allowed a full vista of what was to come in the windy city which is New Zealand’s capital.