New Zealand – The return of the travellers

The journey back to the ferry was relaxed and scenic. We stopped at Pelorus Bridge for breakfast and a short walk.
It’s a beautiful little spot with slow moving shallow water suitable for swimming. Not that we went in, it was very cold. We didn’t realise until much later that it was an area used in The Hobbit, The Desolation of Smaug. We are tripping over Lord of the Rings places here.In the river were a pair of Paradise Shell Duck. I had seen these before but thought they were hybrids, apparently not. The female has a white head and the male a black one!
Greenshell mussels are unique to New Zealand and in particular the Marlborough Sound. As we were eating here I thought I’d better try some. I don’t think cooked in a fritter they are at their best, they were a bit rubbery so I had them again later in a wonderful Chowder, yum!
We bimbled to Picton where we were catching the ferry at 5pm. Unfortunately we had a lot of time to kill so trawled the shops, visited the Edwin Fox museum, this was a ship that transported prisoners and immigrants to New Zealand. Her history was quite varied including carrying goods all over the world during the 1800’s. It looked very uncomfortable in steerage, six to a bunk that was about big enough for two small adults.Running out of things to do we played crazy golf. This something I’ve never done before and I really enjoyed it. Of course Lee ( the big kid) beat me hands down but, it was fun.
We were the first in the queue for the ferry and we were amazed when 14 rail carriages were shunted out of the lower deck!
Once we docked in Wellington we had a 4 and a half hour drive back to Taupo. Lee provided some music on his iPod and we had the road to ourselves much of the way except for loads of huge lorries heading in the opposite direction towards Wellington. Lee was a very good buddy for a night drive. I actually felt awake, so awake that I couldn’t sleep when we got back!