Like A Fish Out of Water
After a laid back morning in Wellington, it was time to head to the Interislander ferry journey that would take us across Cook Straight from the north island to the south island of New Zealand. I was dreading it. You see, I have never done great on boats. I'm prone to seasickness and I'm altogether terrified of the open ocean and the instability of boats. On top of that, I'd been informed by several locals that this was one of the worst boat rides ever. So that morning I'd loaded up with seasickness pills (if you've never tried Bonine, it's my lifesaver and you need to look into it if you get motion sickness) and juiced ginger. It was a beautiful sunny day despite the downpour the evening before and I held out hope that it would be smooth sailing...
My hopes were dashed when upon boarding the captain came over the intercom system almost immediately to inform everyone that this would be a very rough crossing and that if we hadn't already done so, we should take seasickness pills and purchase some ginger beer. The crew members then let us know that the dining area would be closing soon after leaving port because they were worried about things flying around in the swells. Oh and the swells we'd be sailing through? 4 meters and higher (that's more than 13 feet, for those of you not on the metric system)! According to the crew it was one of the roughest passages they'd ever experienced and that's saying something considering the Cook Straight is notorious for rough crossings. The boat creaked up and crashed back down time and again, rocking every which way, tossing passengers around to no end. Most of the boat got dreadfully sick and though, thankfully I didn't get nauseous because of the precautions I'd taken, I got a throbbing headache from the stress of it all. When we finally made it into the harbor that would lead us to Picton, I headed immediately to the deck for some fresh air, passing a disturbing amount of sick passengers, and remained there for the rest of the hour left in the journey. All in all I would not recommend the ferry ride to anyone but if you must do it, make sure you go prepared for the worst. At least the views were beautiful.
