23 May 2022

We had an early start to the day so we could be at the pier at 9:30 to board the Mail Boat cruise on Pelorus Sound. The boat had 48 passengers for the trip, which was more than what we expected but made for a really good trip. 

The crew consisted of 2 ladies - one was the skipper and the other was the deck hand/mail lady. The commentary throughout the cruise was very interesting and quite entertaining as the skipper had a really good sense of humour. 

On Monday’s the ship does the eastern bays and we did various stops along the way to drop off and pick up mail before the 1st stop where we could hop off to explore the coast and forest at Jacobs Bay. We spent half an hour on shore before we boarded again to continue the mail run. 

The sounds are truly magnificent. We saw hundreds of jelly fish all throughout the Sounds and at Jacobs Bay there was some type of seaweed that washed out on the rocks that was the greenest of green!

For lunch we stopped at Te Rawa bay which has a beautiful lodge and restaurant right on the water. When we booked our tickets online it didn’t mention that we would be stopping at a restaurant for lunch so most of the passengers, same as us, had packed a picnic lunch. Fortunately the owner has kindly agreed that the passengers on the boat can enjoy their own packed lunch at the restaurant. Most of us supported him by buying some drinks to have with our lunch. As there is limited internet reception the EFTPOS machine didn’t work just as I had ordered our drinks. The owner kindly gave me his bank account details and agreed that I can do an online bank transfer instead once we got signal. It still amazes me how trusting the people in NZ are!

After lunch we had 3 more mail stops before we started our journey back to Havelock. About 15 minutes after we started our return the skipper announced that there were 2 residents in the North West Bay that they were meant to pick up. So we had to turn back and pick them up. 

This extended our journey by about half an hour and by the time we got back to the marina the sun was already starting to disappear behind the mountains. 

As we were getting into our van to make our way to Blenheim an elderly man that was also on the Mail Boat came and asked us for help. He had left his campervan’s light on so after 7 hours on the water the battery had gone flat. Eddie and Brent helped him to jump start his van and while they were doing that I walked to the shop to get us some cool drinks. 

Once they got the van going we made our way to Blenheim where we checked into Spring Creek Holiday Park for the night. Low and behold it is run by a South African called Gert Theron … he told Eddie Charlize is his sister but lucky for him he got the good looks. 

We got a spot right next to the creek and got a spectacular view of the last few minutes of the sunset. It sure has been a memorable day!