Up early to catch the ferry. We had to be at the terminal an hour before departure. We left the hostel at 06:30 and reached the ferry terminal at 06:45. The only problem being that the tickets and road signs instruct you to go to the Interislander ferry terminal not the Lynx ferry terminal which is 2 or 3 kilometres back along the quay towards Wellington. The kiosk guy at the check in desk is obviously familiar with tourists getting it wrong but it does bef the question as to why the tickets and signs aren't amended to accommodate the common mistake? Everyone was boarded and out of their vehicles by 07:45 and I had swallowed a motion sickness pill in preparation for the Cook Strait crossing.
The crossing was okay, some 2 metre swells, which by Cook Strait standards is calm. The catamaran was very smooth and the journey was only 2 hours long. The final part of the sailing through Marlborough Sounds was extremely smooth and through Queen Charlotte Sound we were accompanied by about fifty dusky dolphins playfully leaping out of the water and performing acrobatics! They were amazing! We soon docked having sailed past wonderful green mountainside and the first land based whaling station which was built in the 1820s.
Disembarking from the ferry was a quick and smooth operation and straight away we were on the road out of Picton towards Nelson.
Our first scenic stop was at Governors Bay, our second at Pelorus Flat. Ian and I were both tired and decided to take a nap at the scenic reserve. We reclined our seats and I relaxed with my pillow allowing my eyes to close. After a couple of hours of good dozing with a little disturbance from spitting rain, we awoke ourselves to have a jam sandwich and take some pictures of the scenery before moving on. It came to be time to leave. I tried to turn the engine over and got nothing. Not even dashboard lights. How odd, I thought. I tried again. Nothing. 'Didn't leave the lights on, did you?' Ian asked. 'Oh, yeah' I replied. Oops. I ran over to another parked vehicle, having apologised to Ian, and enquired as to whether they carried any jump cables. No, they didn't, but they kindly offered to help me bump start the car. We tried. It failed. It didn't give any sign of life and the chap I had accosted insisted that I couldn't have lifted the clutch and I must have had it in third gear. Patiently and calmly I asked him to try it knowing that I had it in the instructed second gear and confident that the car wasn't responding as it should. We repeated the process. He tried it. It failed. Satisfied that I had done the right thing, and with him totally bewildered now accepting that the car was not reacting as it should, I ran up to the roadside to try and get a signal for the mobile phones so we could contact the AA to which the car was a member. No signal.
I decided to try and flag down assistance, anything was better than returning to the Michael Hill impersonator. A car went past, a 4x4 immediately followed by another car went in the opposite direction. I decided I needed a four wheel drive vehicle as they were most likely not going to be tourists and might carry jump cables in their boot. I waved at a white four wheel drive coming towards me who immediately pulled over. I apologised for stopping them and asked if they had any jump cables. They didn't but they asked me all sorts of appropriate questions to which I had the answers. They were clued up about motors and followed me back to where Ian and I had abandoned the car. Thanking the other couple who tried to assist we diverted our attention to the Department of Conservation who I had happened to flag down!
As their vehicle followed me down to the car Ian asked 'Where did they come from?' 'I got them' I said proudly, pleased with myself for attracting attention of useful people and turning to the other couple to dismiss them of their attendance.
All four people leaped out of their vehicle and came to our aid. Having assessed the situation we tried to bump it again to no avail then one chap jumped in to the vehicle and dashed off in search of jump cables. Within minutes he had returned, the remaining five of us making conversation and analysing the cause of the malfunction. It was suspected that the alternator had gone. Anyway, one quick burst of life from one good healthy battery to another flat battery soon had the problem eradicated.
We made lots of appreciative gestures and bade our farewells, having taken advice about the roads ahead to Nelson. Our new found friends insisted we lead out of the reserve on to the main highway and they followed us until we reached the next town. They were exceptionally helpful to us today and I am very grateful to them for their assistance.
I should also mention that it was unanimously agreed that leaving the lights on for a couple of hours whilst parked up was not the sole reason for the battery becoming completely flat.
We drove straight into Nelson, not stopping on the way since the aptly named Pelorus Flat Scenic Reserve and settled in to Shortbread Cottage for the night.
We enjoyed a roast lamb dinner and a beer and a cookie for dessert and watched a showing of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets before retiring at midnight. Our driven journey today from Wellington to Nelson covered a distance of 118 kilometres.
I had word from Mum today that the FedEx parcel arrived in England on Monday which was reassuring.
Copyright 2002 Helen Fuller. All rights reserved.