SOUTH ISLAND, here we come!

Departure Day for our long-anticipated South Island adventure dawned very early!  We were up at 4am, and on the road to Wellington by just after 5.  Steve and Ray had packed and secured the trailer the night before -- they probably didn't absorb at that point just how many more times they would pack and un-pack that trailer in the coming days. :)

When we arrived at the ferry at 7, we took a few photos while we waited for our signal to drive onto the boat for our 8am departure.  Everyone was tired, but we were all SO excited, too.

Once we had parked and secured the vehicle, we made our way up the narrow stairs to the passenger areas of the ship, and tried to get comfortable for the three-hour ferry ride.

The seats we selected were right next to an exit door leading to the boat decks, so we spent most of the time chasing the twins in and out and in and out.  It was quite windy and chilly outside, so the kids didn't tolerate staying out for too long at a time, but they never stayed inside for long, either.  We hoped that after awhile they would sit back and watch the movie being shown ("Oz the Great and Powerful"), but that was wishful thinking.  It was a long three hours, but the excitement of the day overruled the exhaustion.

(some were more excited than others, it would seem)

After disembarking in Picton on the South Island, we began driving to our first destination, Kaikoura.  The scenery quickly transformed from this...

…to this:

We couldn't help but ask ourselves, "Is this a different South Island than the one we were supposed to go to?"  Ha ha.  It was surprisingly brown and barren in several areas throughout our first few days of the trip.  Sometimes the beautiful ocean came back into view, which softened up the dry landscape.

We set up our tents in a DOC (Department of Conservation) site just outside of Kaikoura, about two hours from where we docked in Picton.  The skies were gray and threatening rain, but we were able to get settled with relatively few raindrops (they were saving up for later).

The road to the campground was a dirt road, and with just enough moisture in the air, Big Red got pretty dirty awfully quick.  One of the girls thought she'd be clever and use the canvas to express her loyalties:

We decided that we'd begin a little South Island tradition by taking a quick photo at every campsite to indicate which night we spent there.  We're all smiles for Day One!