Friday, February 04, 2005
Big boats mean that ZuckerBaby doesn't get seasick
The ferry trip from Wellington to Picton is one of the most astounding experiences anyone could ever have. Just gorgeous and mindblowing and exhilirating and, above all, windy.
My mind is so blown away and expanded by the last few days of scenery that I'm worried I'm going to have to remove the top of my head to get the rest of the South Island scenery to fit in.
First of all, the ferry was fucking huge. And I mean "oh my god this thing is the fucking biggest thing I have ever seen, there are 9 decks and people are driving buses onto the lower decks" huge.
And as we moved away from Wellington, there was a great moment of warped perspective. I was looking back at the outskirts of Wellington, with the houses all the way up the mountain, and all of a sudden a new mountain began to appear from behind the existing mountain. And grow and begin to loom. It was amazing - from a distance out into the harbour, the background mountain was always there, but from up close I had never seen it. And if I'm not describing it well, that's because the scenery has now gone beyond rational use of superlatives, and into mind bending, religion inducing, wibbling beauty.
We passed outlets of the North Island, craggy and green and lush, with clouds nestling between the peaks, fog drifting down the sides of the mountains. The sea was deep deep dark blue-green, with bands of lighter turquoise, and wavelets appearing and disappearing all the way to the horizon.
And then we were out on the sea proper. No birds, no little islands, just sea and the horizon. The sudden sense of what it must have even vaguely been like for tiny craft on a giant ocean overcame me. Gosh. That's some scary shit.
A band of thick cloud in the distance slowly revealed itself as a wondrous optical illusion - it was in fact the first craggy outcroppings of the entrance to the South Island.
Land of the Long White Cloud, indeed.
My mind is so blown away and expanded by the last few days of scenery that I'm worried I'm going to have to remove the top of my head to get the rest of the South Island scenery to fit in.
First of all, the ferry was fucking huge. And I mean "oh my god this thing is the fucking biggest thing I have ever seen, there are 9 decks and people are driving buses onto the lower decks" huge.
And as we moved away from Wellington, there was a great moment of warped perspective. I was looking back at the outskirts of Wellington, with the houses all the way up the mountain, and all of a sudden a new mountain began to appear from behind the existing mountain. And grow and begin to loom. It was amazing - from a distance out into the harbour, the background mountain was always there, but from up close I had never seen it. And if I'm not describing it well, that's because the scenery has now gone beyond rational use of superlatives, and into mind bending, religion inducing, wibbling beauty.
We passed outlets of the North Island, craggy and green and lush, with clouds nestling between the peaks, fog drifting down the sides of the mountains. The sea was deep deep dark blue-green, with bands of lighter turquoise, and wavelets appearing and disappearing all the way to the horizon.
And then we were out on the sea proper. No birds, no little islands, just sea and the horizon. The sudden sense of what it must have even vaguely been like for tiny craft on a giant ocean overcame me. Gosh. That's some scary shit.
A band of thick cloud in the distance slowly revealed itself as a wondrous optical illusion - it was in fact the first craggy outcroppings of the entrance to the South Island.
Land of the Long White Cloud, indeed.
