Another blue sky greeted us this morning and we got up in a hurry to get the car packed on time. Mel wanted to take us to her favorite coffee joint on the way to the ferry and treat me to a New Zealand coffee specialty, a “Flat White”. We met her teaching partner for a quick chat, grabbed the coffee and ran. It tasted good, just like a cappuccino (which it basically is). Luckily, this time the ferry service was on and after a short wait I drove our black little rental Punto up the boat ramp and inside the huge belly of the ferry. Then Luca and I headed headed up to one of the decks and sat down close to a window with a nice view out to one side. Almost unnoticeable, the ferry pulled away from the dock and set course out of the harbour. Little did we know what was in store for us A few minutes later the captain came in over the intercom and warned everybody that the crossing might be “a little rough” at times… Due to the storm from the day before there were 10m waves rolling in and even before the boat had sailed out of the mouth of the harbor the ship was being rocked noticeably. Once on the open water it got even rougher, the massive boat (it takes 1,600 passengers!) got slammed so hard by the waves that you could feel the ship shake. It lurched up the faces of the waves and then dove down the other sides. Within minutes the merry chatter on board fell silent and the crew started running around handing out barf bags. They were being liberally used. It was difficult walking anywhere and you had to hold on to the railings to make it from A to B safely. Luca’s face went pretty pale as the seasickness overcame him and he couldn’t do anything but slump over in his chair, his head buried in his arm. Luckily he managed to keep it together and didn’t throw up. I was doing fine, I don’t know why, but I kept my eye on the horizon as well as I could and I think what kept us from throwing up was the fact that we actually hadn’t had breakfast yet. That was the first thing we did once we drove off the ferry into the little town of Pickton. We found a Dutch “bakkerij” right on the main road and grabbed some Dutch treats and hit the road. Our goal for the day was to reach Abel Tasman National Park, a 2,5 hr drive away. More on that in the next blog post: Kayaking Abel Tasman