Missing key and Ferry ride

July 24 - the morning started with a lovely breakfast with Mel and Bryce and went SWIFTLY downhill when we realized that we couldn't find the rental car key. After 2 hr of looking -- Mari tried to break into the car for over an hour and Michelle spent time on the phone with AA and a locksmith -- Michelle found the key in the purse that had already been emptied TWICE while looking. We decided it had too many pockets!! We were relieved to find it, but sad that we had lost so much time. We lost a little more while trying to find a gas station so that we could return the car with a full tank, but in finding a gas station, we also found our first pie. Happy Barney?? I have to admit that it tasted like a hot pocket, so I wasn't too thrilled, but I can imagine that if drunk, I would have found it much more delicious! :)

After dropping the car, we rode the cable car up to the Botanic Gardens and walked back down to the city and then to the Te Papa museum. It had a LOT of interesting information about Maori culture, so Mari and I both enjoyed it. There was an exhibit called Tapa cloth made from the bark of trees and used by many islanders. It was pretty amazing. After the museum we met Mel and Bryce for a quick trip to the Ferry. We were freezing at the time and hoping the ferry would be warmer!

The ferry WAS warmer, but a little rocky (Mari wasn't a fan). Originally, rugby was on TV, so we were just sitting in the cafe area enjoying that, but it went off as soon as we started moving. :( At the same time, we realized that we had two bottles of wine in our checked baggage...we hadn't done ANYTHING to protect it. Although we knew there was NOTHING we could do, we couldn't stop thinking and worrying about it, so we decided to splurge and bought $12 (NZ dollar = 71 cents US) tickets to the cinema on board. Turned out we were the only ones, so we had the theater to ourselves for a showing of Sex and the City 2. While not very thought-provoking, the movie was quite entertaining and time definitely passed more quickly.

We arrived in Picton 3 hrs after boarding the ferry and were picked up by a shuttle to our hostel -- Villa Backpackers. It was nice... definitely a backpacker place, but well cared for. We were given hot apple crisp with ice cream after check in, and made some lovely instant coffee to go with it (we are becoming instant coffee connoisseurs on this trip!!) . Then we popped some laundry in and walked to the TV room to turn on the Australia v. S. Africa tri-nations match. It was a good game despite Australia having quite a lead at the beginning.

With some clean clothes and happy bellies, we went to bed kinda late our first night in Picton, but we were only planning on driving the couple hours from Picton to Kaikoura the next day, so we weren't in a big rush. We enjoyed our night at the backpacker's inn, but are looking forward to some hotels with private baths in the coming week. (spoiled, I know.)