Traveling South

On the way back to civilization and phone coverage from the river rafting lodge, i almost ran into a group of sheep who had escaped their enclosure. One of the small fellows decided to run away from the big white car, but ran in front of the car instead of the side. I ended up chasing that thing for a few minutes, poor sheep probably shaken up pretty badly.
Ian, the friendly hostel guy from a few night ago, had told me that there was a viking city on the East coast that I might want to visit. I had already seen it on the map, Dannevirke. I was imagining it to be something similar to Solvang in California, 1000% exaggerated Danish village. The drive to Wellington would be prolonged with a few hours more, but that was worth a good Danish meal I thought.
On the way I met a road block and a sign that said the mountain pass ahead was closed and there was a detour going South. The detour ended up taking me around 45 min to get around, with a few questionable turns I didn't quite agree on, but Amy insisted.
The closer I came to the city, the worse the weather seemed to become, this was at least more authentic than the ever sunny Solvang. The rain was gushing down from the sky, really challenging to see anything at some point.
I finally arrived to Dannevirke and the expectations were sky high, already had my dinner planed inside my head. Just needed someone to cook it for me.
I drove around the little city for a few minutes looking for something open, but it was quite hard to find anything. A few more rounds around the block and I could conclude that I was never going to get any food in this little village. Everything was closed, only the gas stations and junk food places were open, at 17:00. I drove around the city center a few times just to make sure, and nope, couldn't find any place with some Danish food.
I got so irritated that I jumped in the car and left the city, hungry and disappointed, doesn't really get worse than that. Also had to go through the closed mountain pass on the way further South, but this time it did not take as long as before. I ended up at a crossing that I had been to earlier that day, but why that if I was driving South and before it was North? Amy had gotten a little lost was my conclusion. The entire Dannevirke adventure had taken me more than 4 hours extra compared to my planned 2 hours, that sucked, but what could I do about it now, nothing. I could only continue toward Wellington and hope for the best.
I had already booked a hostel in Wellington and had everything in order with the address already typed in the GPS. I arrived pretty late, but managed to find an Irish pub with a good Irish Stew and a Guinness!
Back in the hostel I pretty much passed out as soon as I laid down on the bed. I had tried to book a prepaid ferry ticket, but as it was Sunday it was not possible after 17:00. Had no idea what day it was, maybe 
I got up next morning really early and booked a ticket for the next ferry, which I could do already 1h20m later, with check-in 1 hour before. Basically there was only time to do a 5 minute shower and then I had to be on my way. The ferry was 5 minutes away from the hostel, but I had to fill up with gas first and get some food to eat.
Bought some gas station breakfast and drove to the harbor where the ferry was already waiting. It was super windy and the ferry was rocking a little in the harbor already. We drove aboard and the entire thing reminded me when we were kids of taking the train and car ferries from Fyn to Sjælland. Crazy to think about now with a bridge, moving a train over the water in a boat, haha
This was going to be a good ride and indeed it was. Already on the way out of the harbor there was a public announcement that the ride today was going to be rough because of the wind, and then some instructions on how to puke in a paperback. When the ferry came to the open water, Cook Strait, it got even worse. The boat was rocking from side to side and up and down as well. At some points we were hanging in the air for a splitsecond, and the bow of the ferry dunked down on the waves and under for a second. People turned quite pale in their faces and the paper backs were distributed left and right - and used! So many people had gotten into a little more action than they paid for, haha
Half way over the strait, the water suddenly got calm, we were now sheltered by the Northern tip of the South Island and entering the area that had given this ferry route the reputation as being the most beautiful ferry route in the world.
It was in fact pretty cool scenario, quite different from the North Island. I had been to many remote and beautiful beaches and coastal area on the North Island, but this looked quite different.
Off the ferry in Picton, I met with the two Chilean guys, Nubian and Alvaro again, and they had met up with another backpacker, Ryan from Canada. We talked a little about plans for the next few days and came to an agreement, packed the car and set off towards the city of Nelson. A few minutes of driving from Picton and we found ourselves in the mountains with a stunning view that came almost for free.
We arrived to Nelson and found an information center, I-Site, which is a pretty cool place for tourists. They know everything and they can book everything for a very small fee. The red lipstick girl was very amused dealing with us, but we came out of there with a very good plan for the next 4 days. One last stop at an outdoor gear and I was equipped with a sleeping bag inliner, a real hiking air mattress and a pretty good jacket that was on sale. Yeah, ready to rock