Today was really all about covering ground and getting to South Island. We left the Tongariro National Park at about 8.30am knowing we had a 6-7 hour drive ahead of us and a 3 hour ferry crossing. Initially the weather was clear with breaks of sunshine allowing us to get some panoramic photos of the volcanoes and crossing we had walked the previous day. As we headed down the south west coast of North Island towards Wellington we turned off the highway to a beach-side location for lunch. By now the sky was grey and the sea looked choppy and miserable. We sat inside the camper to munch on our sandwiches and decided that now was the time for me to relieve Scott from some of the driving. 6 hours for one person is too much....so it was time for me to try and drive an automatic for the first time! I practised initially around the car park - it was so strange not having a gear stick and I kept reaching for the non existence clutch! But after a while I got used to it and realised the vehicle really wasn't going to stall every time I braked for a junction.

As we neared Wellington the heavens opened and we found ourselves in a torrential downpour. Our plans of wandering round Wellington Harbour while waiting for our ferry had gone to pot! Our ferry wasn't due to leave until 6.30pm and we arrived at the ferry terminal at 2.40pm! I've never been so early for something before in my life! The guy in the ticket office had raised eyebrows and sent us packing giving us directions to a nearby shopping mall in a suburb called Johnstone to shelter from the rain. We found a supermarket to get some supplies and had a cuppa in the shopping mall. I stumbled across a book shop and bought a road atlas of South Island for the next leg of our journey and a Lonely Planet for Australia.

Later on as we queued for our ferry (this time at the correct time) the rain finally stopped which gave us some hope the crossing may not be as rough as expected. As we left the harbour the setting sun lit the sides of the sea cliffs. We ate dinner from the boat's restaurant and then battled against the wind walking around the deck of the ferry. Time passed quickly as we chatted to a few local South Islanders and got some travelling trips. On arrival to South Island we literally drove off the ferry almost straight into our prebooked campsite in Picton and bedded down for the night.