A night on the ferry

I'm thankful for Google's directions and proper road signage. Between those we found the ferry terminal at around 2:10am. Final check-in was 2:30am. I had a booking for one adult, a camper van and a cat. Most people I suppose use their common sense when it comes to these things, but I was literally like a possum in the headlights. Yes, we found the terminal, but now what? There is a check-in for passengers and a check-in for vehicles. For some obscure reason I thought that you needed to do both, separately...

It took me a bit of a detour to realise that I only needed to go to the check-in for vehicles - logical.

As I checked in I was asked to provide a photo ID, like a driver’s license. It's bit of a hard thing to find that early in the morning, but I eventually produced it. In return I received a notice to hang on my rear-view mirror to say I have a pet in the vehicle, I also got a little form with options I had to tick to declare what measures I have taken to ensure my pet's safety and well-being while waiting for me during our journey. This had to be done on the spot and handed back (with the pen). Then I got the boarding pass. I was told to park next to a fence where the other pet-transporters were and I did so. It was then that KiwiRail decided to shunt a few trucks on the tracks right next to the motorhome, the one with the cat in it, the cat that has come such a long way, but still prefers quiet over noise. I was thinking to myself: What are these Ferry-people thinking. They go on and on about the wellbeing of your pet and then they put us next to this noise! People mostly had dogs, but as far as I could see there was also a horse. I must say, Ferrari handled it far better than I thought. She was mostly curious and when it got too much she just hoped on to bed and stayed there with only the occasional meow.

Finally we boarded. And then it was time to leave my precious baby on her own. I prayed numerous times that she would be OK. About an hour and a half into the journey I asked one of the crew if I could go check on her. Yip, I was that kind of a mum. She was fine, and by the time we had to leave the ferry at 7am, I found her curled up on the driver’s seat.

I had maybe an hour's sleep on the ferry, but it helped. Having decided earlier not to stay in Picton, we moved on to Blenheim where we will spend the next two days or so.

Approaching Picton