From distant lands...one woman one man..let the four winds blow..

The song’s John Lennon’s “you are here”, Wellington, in case we’ve got you guessing!
We’re changing islands today – don’t know where the time went, it’s flown by. But we have packed masses in, we’re sure you’ll agree.
We spent part of Wednesday evening getting the gear sorted. As we were due to give “Slug” back at 10am on Thursday, we needed to get all our camping stuff into our two big rucksacks that we’d bought over inside our cases. And guess what – it all fitted!! Miracle of miracles! No mean feat when you think M’s is only a 60 Litre one, and we also had to fit M’s trekking poles, R’s tripod, and R’s cushion he’s using as an extra pillow in!
Oooh yes, speaking of tripods..we did borrow Jen’s thinking it was lighter than the one Dad had given us some time ago..when we got it home, Dad’s was actually significantly lighter..so we took Dad’s, nicked Jen’s case., and left your tripod on the side board in the hall, Jen! Cheeky or what?
So, bright and early Thursday morning we’re off in search of “cafe net” (the local free high speed internet which is supposed to be in most cafes in Wellington) and some much needed breakfast! We failed miserably at finding any cafe with internet access, but we did find an interesting place for breakfast – “the Loft” a cafe above Whitcoulls (NZ’s W H Smith) While waiting for breakfast to arrive, Philias did some blogging! He was also fascinated by the “egg timer” that arrived with our tea. Nothing to do with eggs..just to let you know when you tea “went live” (was ready to drink!)
Then it was a case of load up Slug, drive to Ace Rental to drop him off (after filling him up – we’re not getting stung with a NZ$30 refuelling charge!) So, drop off Slug, and the Hire Company took us down to the Blue Bridge Ferry Terminal. That’s where we are now. We didn’t have to wait for our lift down, so we’re a bit earlier that we’d anticipated. Never mind, time to do some blogging...oh heck, hang on a minute, I’ve just been told they’re going to do a routine fire drill! So, going off line for a min – not leaving the lappie in the waiting area while we’re outside!
Back in a mo’!
That was a bit of a bore! And rather drizzly too! Never mind. At least the wind’s dropped, which bodes well for a 4 hour crossing  M’s not the best of sailors, although judging from her experience on cat in the swells in the Bay of Islands, her sea legs are definitely improving!
Ron’s just worked out how far slug travelled while we had him – not too bad – 3584km or 2240 miles in 21 days! Or for those who like stats 106.66666666 miles a day. But, that was only when we were driving of course. Phew!
The trip across looks like it’s going to be easier than we anticipated too. We thought we’d be carrying everything on a la cross channel ferries at home, with luggage racks to leave stuff on when we got on board. Nope! Check in as on a aircraft, don’t see cases or rucksacks til we get to Picton – Result! Just hope they unload fast – we’ve got 42mins from when the boat docks to when the car hire place (fortunately on the quayside) closes! On well, if we don’t get the car tonight, we’ll find somewhere to stay and pick it up in the morning –no worries – be happy!