October 11th, I had to test the efficiency of New Zealand's transportation systems. From Christchurch to Picton by bus, then from Picton to Wellington by ferry, and from Wellington to Auckland by plane. I had bought the tickets in advance, but if someone was delayed by just an hour, the whole plan would fall apart... I didn't want that to happen. The morning turned out to be wonderful. I woke up at 6:00, had breakfast, and was at the bus stop by 6:45, where I still had to go through a simple registration for the flight and exchange my electronic ticket for a regular one. When I entered the office, I saw two women, one of whom was a pure-blooded Maori. I handed her the papers, and she suddenly asked me in perfect Russian, 'Shevchenko?' I didn't even have time to react, and she added, 'Russian?' I was completely amazed 🙂. Then she continued in English, saying that her husband is Russian 🙂. At that moment, the second woman in the office woke up and exclaimed, 'YOU HAVE A RUSSIAN HUSBAND O_O?!' In general, the morning turned out to be positive for everyone 🙂.

After being in the hills of Picton for almost 5 hours, I was already strongly wishing I could sit for longer. And such pleasure was provided to me by a transportation company with the interesting name of Nakedbus. The name is so "borderline foul" that one US hosting provider abruptly banned me by IP just for trying to write that word on a New Zealand forum 🙂

So, uh. ahead of me was to enjoy the views of New Zealand from the windows of a naked bus for 6 hours. I can tolerate such long sit-ups easily enough, so I wasn't even worried. In fact, it turned out that on the way the views were so enchanting that I forgot to realize that it was practically pointless to take photos from the bus window, and shot the whole way without stopping. In 6 hours about 180 frames were accumulated, of which 30 and a penny were more or less suitable for publication.

The next day thoroughly fueled by muesli and toast with jam at the Sequoia Backpackers hostel I rolled out the sun, dispersed the clouds and went to photograph Picton again. I had four hours before the bus to Chöch. Picton is home to a very large hub of hiking trails, they all start here. I googled a trail to Waikawa Bay from which you can turn back to Picton at about the halfway point.

The first rain during my stay in Wellington was on the day I sailed to Picton, before which it had been sunny and rain-free all week. The process of boarding the ferry is similar to that of an airplane, only the luggage is not screened, and so everything is like the big iron birds - check-in, waiting in another hall and passing through the teletrap. The most exciting thing for me was that I was going traveling alone, and, as it turned out, with virtually no knowledge of English. Sure I could buy food and knew what to yell once I was overboard, but 99% of what was said to me I didn't understand a damn thing 🙁