Wellington to Marahau

My flight from San Francisco ended in Auckland where I transferred on a domestic flight to Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. Wellington is near the southern tip of the North Island while our car rental was scheduled for pickup in Picton, on the northern end of the South Island. The Interislander runs more east to west than it does north to south and I was pleasantly surprised to see my first amphibious mammal alongside the ferry (I think a penguin). As we neared Picton, the harbor was alive with sailboats (and jellyfish).

On picking up our rental car in Picton, we were quickly corrected that it was not in fact pink but rather 'champagne' in color. Whatever color it was, it would be the closest thing we had to a home for the next week and would need to play CDs to make up for the lack of reliable radio stations. The CD-player was incredibly finicky, but with it more or less sorted we drove up to Marahau where we would stay to get an early start kayaking the next morning. Along the way, we made a requisite stop in Havelock for their green-lipped mussels. These mussels are huge! We ordered a batch with a simple white-wine sauce and another sampler platter with 7 different styles before carrying on to Marahau for a second dinner. In Marahau we went to the restaurant (these towns are small even by CT standards) and despite being at 25-33% capacity were scolded that 'reservations are essential'. (Seriously.) In short-time however, the waitress could not resist our charm and warmed up nicely as we ate perhaps the best meal of the trip. While New Zealand's reputation for lamb shines through, I saw nearly as much cattle farming and a significant amount of venison farming as well. I love a good lamb chop as much as the next person, but the best meals were generally not lamb.

Wellington to Marahau photos