The ferry to the South island leaves from Wellington, so we stayed overnight in Martinborough, about an hour away, the night before. Martinborough is now Pinot Noir wine country but it was originally settled by a Scottish sheep farmer. He built the town around a central square and named the streets after his world-travels. (Cuba, Suez etc.) Most of restaurants were very fancy – catering to the wine tourists – but Circus, the local arts cinema, had a great bistro in the back which was good value and packed.
Had a quick tour around Wellington in the morning and drove up to Mount Victoria to look at the panorama. The houses, perched up on the hillside on hairpin streets overlooking the harbour were very trendy but the city itself was a bit shabby and the commercial port and ferry terminals spoil the waterfront area. As the capital of New Zealand, we had somehow expected it to be better than Auckland, but we found it pretty dirty and it didn’t seem to have much of architectural interest (maybe because it was levelled by an earthquake in 1855?).
Anyway, maybe we just needed more time there, but we had to drop off the car at Thrifty and get on the ferry as foot passengers by 1.30pm. The ferry only takes 3 hours and passes through the Marlborough Sounds, a picturesque series of inlets and coves of clear water.
A huge amount of freight goes between the islands but we were very surprised to see sheep being transported - since they have millions of them on both islands! 
Had a quick tour around Wellington in the morning and drove up to Mount Victoria to look at the panorama. The houses, perched up on the hillside on hairpin streets overlooking the harbour were very trendy but the city itself was a bit shabby and the commercial port and ferry terminals spoil the waterfront area. As the capital of New Zealand, we had somehow expected it to be better than Auckland, but we found it pretty dirty and it didn’t seem to have much of architectural interest (maybe because it was levelled by an earthquake in 1855?).Anyway, maybe we just needed more time there, but we had to drop off the car at Thrifty and get on the ferry as foot passengers by 1.30pm. The ferry only takes 3 hours and passes through the Marlborough Sounds, a picturesque series of inlets and coves of clear water.
A huge amount of freight goes between the islands but we were very surprised to see sheep being transported - since they have millions of them on both islands! 
