Mount Doom (Mt. Ruapahu), Wellington, and Picton (South Island), New Zealand South
10:19pm NZTime

Like I said in the earlier blog, we spent the night in a Lahar danger zone and drank heavily with awesome Germans. Took off at the crack of dawn with the kids still sleeping in the overhead sleeping area. They loved that. Drove and Drove and Drove. Deb beat me at the game of Horse and the girls screamed the words to The Lion King all day long. Got all the way down to Wellington, parked downtown, found a phone and an internet cafe, uploaded the blog and did some email. I called a prospective employer here and set up an interview for Tuesday back in Wellington.

Deb called the ferry and found that we could go on stand-by tonight. The girl on the line told her that the ship was in "Chicken-Mode",... chicken mode??? Only after some Kiwis drinking at a pub on the corner (they do that a lot) started laughing their heads off after overhearing us did we realized that "Chicken Mode" was actally "Check-In Mode".

We got over to the ferry and waited in line for an hour or so, actually got on to the ship and we were off! Deb found her sea legs only after a queasy hour and the kids romped around the boat. I took pictures of everything. Talked with an interesting guy on the fantail about the tectonic plates under the islands. I'll have to check this when I get home, but he was telling me that the south island is actually on a different plate than the north and is sliding under the north island, causing the volcanic activity up there. Sounds feasible.

Got into Picton around 8:00 to glorious lighting and beautiful land/water scapes. Found the holiday park (Top Ten Holiday Parks are THE BEST), emptied the "solid waste unit", almost puked, and we're off to bed. No idea when I'm going to get a chance to upload this one, the South Island is a bit more rural than the North,... might have to wait till Tuesday.

Kaya as a small flower in Taupo...

Kenna also immitating a flower.

The "SuperLoo". Coin-Operated, completely clean and well stocked bathroom and shower facilities. We could use this in California...

Not sure what to do with this....

Looking back at Lake Taupo from the grade over the hills and into Mordor...

Tourists... pasty, flabby, and happy...

Kaya's ZORB proof...

The most incongruous thing so far,.. an english Chalet at the base of Mount Ruapahu. Nothing but volcanic rock and scrub for miles and miles...

Hilarious German couple we met while sleeping in the path of the deadly Lahar... Really great people.

The light was really bad and we couldn't spend the time to wait for it, so,... here's Mount Doom minus about fifteen layers of Computer Graphics effects....

The Mighty Arahura steams in to meet us.

Deb and I waiting for the Ferry... kids are asleep in the back of the camper.

Multi-shot of us loading into the ferry. This was really cool. They actually hold an entire train in the bottom hold. Like 300 cars...

Kaya's first trip on a big-ass ship. Don't know if this shows it, but there were MILLIONS of moon-jellies in the water in Wellington Harbor. Really. Millions.

Deb finally finds her sea legs and takes in the view with the kiddos.

Coming into the straight to Picton on the South Isle. Look closely and find the massive rookery of white birds (Gulls?) on the spire-like rock on the left.

Sun setting and an upside-down moon rising over the south island.

More of the islands in the straight.

Really nice guy I talked to about engineering watching the sunset as we steam into Picton.

Deb finally into clamer waters....

Picton at sunset.

Redying the Mighty Arahura for off loading...