We got up bright and early the next day to make it to the Interislander Ferry that crosses Cook Strait to the South Island. It’s huge, and even though we’d been on it before, it’s always very impressive. We’d even worked out a routine. As soon as we were allowed to leave our cars, we made a beeline to the our preferred seating area (comfy reclining chairs on Deck 7, with a great view out large windows facing the bow of the ship and, mercifully, no TV), and the kids went to check out what movies were showing. Once we got under way, Lucy spent lots of time outside on the observation decks trying to somehow capture it all in photos and fix the breathtaking views in her mind so she could relive it all when she was back again in the prairie!
We arrived in Picton (on the South Island) at lunchtime, so we found our way downtown to a pleasant café where we could sit outside and enjoy the sunshine. There was a nice view of the bay and the ferry landing, and after lunch Lucy and Emily jumped up to go take a quick photo of the WW I memorial in front of the water. Just as in Europe, WW I memorials are everywhere. Curiously, it seems that WW I still occupies a bigger place in the psyches of New Zealanders than WW II, which came very close to their own shores (many of the war memorials have what looks like little addendum inscriptions to the fallen from WW II placed somewhere on the memorials). Apparently, many, many Kiwis fought and died for the Queen in WW I. (I just looked this up, and as a percent of population, twice as many New Zealanders (1.5%) died in WW I as in WW II, so I guess that explains it).
As we ran off to take that photo, Lucy didn’t realize she had left her purse (containing the entire family’s passports) on the back of the café chair. As you might expect, this is only the beginning of the story….
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