I woke up this morning after a surprisingly good sleep. I was totally dry, though it had presumably rained through the night. I found my sleeping pad to be wet underneath, so I dried it off before rolling it up. The foam worked very well for this: none of the water was absorbed in to make me cold or to make it harder to clean than a quick wipe with a paper towel. I'm happy I bought it. We went quickly this morning because we had to leave in time to catch the ferry back to the north island. We made more oatmeal, substituting boysenberry jam for the brown sugar we couldn't find. We packed up the tent as carefully as we could, trying not to get anything unnecessarily wet.
We reached Picton by 11:00 -- an hour and ten minutes before we were supposed to check in. We used our free time to pick up lunch at a Scottish bar and restaurant. We had wanted to go somewhere Scottish in Dunedin but found nothing. We figured this was a good substitute. We had our first view of the Olympics while we were waiting (5 km speed skating). It's strange to be totally missing big events like this. We also didn't see the Super Bowl and forgot about Valentine's Day until talking/texting people in the states. My fish & chips was tasty. I enjoyed it more with the extra tartar sauce I was not able to get in Queenstown. Back out in the streets of Picton, my bladder was not full enough to make me stop at what Ian, Wes, and Zach reported as "the Jetson's bathroom". It was apparently incredibly modern, entirely automated, and even spoke to you.
Checking in on the ferry went as smoothly as last time, even with our ticket (meant originally) for tomorrow. As we waited in the car to get on the boat, a man came by our car asking if we had heard of didymo and whether we had been in any lakes, streams, or rivers recently. Sidebar: Didymo, as far as I can tell, is a bug that infests a lot of bodies of water in New Zealand, making the water, at best, undrinkable. It spreads to new places by being carried on wet surfaces. The anti-didymo slogan on the sign we saw (several of which I had seen before) was "check, clean, dry". I'm not sure what the checking involves, but we are supposed to be careful to clean and dry everything we put in freshwater. I said yes to the former question and no to the latter because we had just seen a sign about it and reassured ourselves that our clothes had been washed since the last time we had been in a lake and that everything should be dry. In reality, we know very little about didymo and most certainly have been in lakes and rivers recently. But the man moved on before I realized that I should have answered differently. We'll just have to do some research ourselves next time we have internet, and be careful around freshwater from now on.
We waited about 20 minutes before being let on the boat, where we were parked outside this time. I took advantage of the down time on the ferry to blog (I seem to have fallen perpetually behind since our last trip on this boat). Though I never went outside, I had a good view through a glass wall in the back of the boat. Zach, in contrast, stayed out on the top deck for the entirety of the three hour ride. He looked a little windblown when we saw him on the way back to the car.
The car was not as we had left it. Exposed to the air for the whole journey, it had become crusted with salt. Windshield wipers + fluid cleared my view forward, but on the sides and in the back I had very little visibility until we reached a gas station. While Zach bought gas and I bought some macaroons, Wes cleaned the windows. With fuel, snacks, and a line of sight in all the relevant directions, we hit the road for Martinsborough (a destination chosen on the ferry (only slightly last minute)). We passed through Palmerston North and enjoyed the look of the city. Zach said John Cleese had made some disparaging remarks about the city, which prompted the residents to name the dump after him. I think we sided with the residents on this one.
Martinsborough is a small town stuffed to the brim with wineries. All of them were closed for the day when we pulled in, so we busied ourselves with finding accommodation for the night. The only tenting site in town charged $17/person, which meant we could have paid no less than $68 for a patch of grass for a night. Not impressed, we opted for the only other non-motel -- Kate's Place, a backpackers homestay where we were informed by Kate herself that the most important rule was that you make yourself at home. Though the night there was more expensive in absolute terms, it was hands down the better deal. Kate was a nice woman whose two vices were Evony and cigarettes, though neither interfered with her guests' stay. Our room had two bunk beds, each with a pillow, sheets, two blankets, and a reading light, which I found to be a nice touch. We also had our own towels, a bathroom, and several books. The common area had a big bookcase with much more reading material, Risk, Scrabble, and Puerto Rico. There were plenty of couches and chairs, a fully stocked kitchen (we even had access to the spices), and a dishwasher! The doors were always unlocked, the living room opened nicely to a patio outside, and we were given a very liberal license to relax: "Don't ask me if you can do something! I'll tell you [if you overstep your bounds]. But I'm very laid back."
And laid back she was. She didn't even make us pay when we accepted her room for the night. We picked up food for the night at the (thankfully still open) convenience store. The drive to the store deserves a mention because it took us around THE BIGGEST ROUNDABOUT we've ever seen. The town square in the center of Martinsborough is actually one giant roundabout with a full-fledged park in the middle. We decided to make omelettes for dinner, so we got eggs, tomatoes, onions, cheese, and bacon (bacon pieces, which really weren't too different from American bacon). Ian is big on having sides for dinner, so we also got a bag of potatoes.
We drove back to Kate's Place, parked in back for the first time, and brought our stuff in. She still didn't breathe a word about money, but was interested in our trip to New Zealand. She loved the idea of a semester here, but "Auckland wouldn't be my choice." Her choice would be Dunedin, where she went to school for a few years. She never got a degree, joking that this was because of the abundance of pubs, but never going in detail on the topic. We didn't press. She told us that most Kiwis don't think much of Auckland (interestingly, it occurs to me now that she never used the word "kiwi") because it's such a big, ugly city compared to the rest of the country. We started cooking, joined shortly by the German couple that was also staying the night (have I mentioned how everyone here seems to be German?). The meal turned out to be delicious. I like omelettes in general, but I really like the cheese we have found here: tasty cheddar. “Tasty” does not seem to be just a marketing label: we have found the same thing on multiple brands. It seems to be a legitimate type of cheese here, and we (even Ian, just a little bit) are fans.
I showered after dinner. The bathroom was just the right size for one person and the shower was excellent; the water was hot and the shower head was removable. This combination was a great one for my bug bites. Hot water sprayed directly on itchy areas is the most soothing treatment I know of and this one was no exception. I got out of the shower feeling great and ready to settle down for a board game. Everyone had been willing to do Risk, but Puerto Rico caught my attention. I saw and played it for the first time last summer in Windermere and had a good time doing it. I have found Risk kind of frustrating recently, so I persuaded the guys to give Puerto Rico a try. It's a somewhat complicated game and required a lot of time to set up, even more so because we were the first people to play Kate's copy of the game and three of us had never heard it before. I was worried I would be over my head explaining it, but eventually everyone got a grasp of it and enjoyed a close game. We went to bed a little before 1:00 feeling very content.
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