Photo Essay: Cook Strait on the Interislander Ferry
3 Feb 2014
Basically, this post exists because I get massively, pathetically seasick. You might remember that I have a lot of romantic ideas about boats and taking the Interislander ferry was no exception. When I realized that the boat we would be riding to New Zealand’s South Island was actually a luxury cruise liner in disguise, I got excited. I could already imagine myself sitting in a cozy cafe, out of the wind, soaking in the views and a couple of lattes. Not that I can afford lattes, but maybe, just this once, I’d make an exception.
Of course, what actually happened was that I walked below deck to said cafe and became immediately aware that the ground beneath me was swaying. Now to a normal person this would present only the slightest inconvenience, but for me it meant I had approximately five minutes to purchase a coffee and sprint up two floors to the relatively stable upper deck (pronounced “dick” by the kiwi announcer to our great amusement) before losing the contents of my stomach. Unfortunately there was what here in New Zealand we call a queue. So I queued. And queued. And then finally, just as I was about to forgo the entire operation and succumb to a coffee-less voyage (that being one step above a barfing voyage), I got my “flat white” — whatever the fuck that is, I really need to figure out the complicated coffee vocabulary here — and took off at a jog. It was a close one. The moral of the story is that I spent the rest of the trip up on the observation “dick,” freezing my ass off, burning my ears to a crisp and taking photos. In hindsight, it was worth it, because it looked like this:
At some point I managed to tear my eyes aware from the horizon long enough snap a picture of the map. Here we are, cruising through Queen Charlotte Sound.
We also saw dolphins! Being the expert photographer that I am, I managed to snag this epic shot. I’ve circled the dolphin for you, lest you think it’s a wave or something.
I also saw my future home, no big deal.
And the water really was this color…
This ferry trip convinced me that New Zealand may actually be the most fantastically beautiful, otherworldly fantastic place in the world. And also that I should avoid boats.
I feel your pain on seasickness – I get it too. The first night of our 8 day Galapagos trip was spent hugging the toilet for about 6 hours.
And your photos look amazing – I can’t wait to head to NZ!
Yeah, it really puts a damper on things, doesn’t it? Blegh.
Great post as always and great photos. I don´t really get sea-sick, lucky me, but I´ve seen my little brother turning green a couple of times. Secretly it´s hilarious to see people getting sea-sick, I know ´schadenfreude´ :-O
Haha you are MEAN.
Too, TOO, damned funny. Reminds me of our honeymoon. I’ve been thinking of blogging on it. On the ferry over to Nova Scotia from Portland ME, folks started dropping like flies. There were green faces and groaning sounds everywhere. I was fine until the SMELL hit me. You know, the SMELL. Hubby & I snagged a box of supposedly non-drowsy puke-preventer (a medical term) and ended up in comas until we hit dry land again. No photos of what I knew was going to be a “charming” ferry ride over BUT at least we didn’t puke. I think. Hard to say as I WAS in a coma.
Yeah, my worst seasickness was on a whale watching trip off the coast of Maine. I barfed in my mother’s hat (to be fair, I was twelve–now I’d probably make it to the rail). You should definitely write a blog post about it. The more unpleasant the experience, the better the blog post.
Wow, that water! Still amazes me that water can actually look like that!
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