Apparently no one can take a rental car on the ferry from the North Island to the South Island – which we were informed of this morning when we stopped in to pickup the car at the Wellington ferry terminal to load onto the ferry. So, we crossed the Cook Strait w/o said rental car and were promised that one would be waiting for us at our destination on the South Island in Picton – fortunately it was…

The crossing was only about 100 km and took about 3-1/2 hours but it was quite windy and that last hour was quite spectacular. Wooded slopes similar to the fjords cascaded right down the waters edge on both sides of the passage.

Our accommodations in Picton are at the Sennen House, a lovingly restored 1880’s Victorian that is now a B&B with two rooms on the upper level. Our room is at the upper right in the photo below.

We’ll follow up with some present-day photos of the house…