On our walk last night Fiona had managed to miss the last step on some stairs and twist her ankle, she managed to complete the walk but by the time we got back to the hotel it was quite swollen. Some ibuprofen and a night's sleep and it seems OK. We had pre-booked a taxi for 07.45 so after having breakfast we checked out and were only downstairs a couple of minutes and the taxi came. Last night one of the taxi rides came to $22.50 but I only had $20 and $50 notes and he rounded it down to $20 rather than fuss about with change, Wellington - where the cab drivers tip the passengers.

It was about 15 minutes to the ferry terminal, there was a queue to check in the luggage but it was moving very quickly, Fiona had gone to the ticket counter to get our pre-ordered tickets and that saved us a bit of time when we got to the head of the queue to check the bags in. Lots of people taking the ferry and it was also rammed with cars, there seemed to quite a few groups of kids going on adventure breaks. We had access to the premium lounge - no kids allowed -, quiet with complimentary food and beverages, Sky TV, WiFi. Nice plush sofas to sit in and we grabbed a window seat so we could admire the scenery whilst passing through the Cook Straits. A word about Captain Cook, great seaman that he was he never ever found the harbours at either Sydney or Wellington, probably the 2 best well sheltered deep harbours anywhere - and he got himself killed in Hawaii.

The 3 or so hour journey passed quite quickly, a few strolls around the deck to admire the view of the straits into Picton, Fiona saw some dolphins but I missed them.

Our bags were again some of the first available so when we got to the Avis desk there were only 4 or some couples before us, but only 2 staff on duty and lots of paperwork. We had our car upgraded for free to a Vauxhall Captiva, an SUV which when sold in the UK was called the Antara. The downside of course is that it will use more fuel. Although fairly new with only 16,000 km on the clock it doesn't have a sat nav so its back to using my old Windows Nokia phone with the Here Drive app (which annoyingly doesn't work on Windows 10 for Phones so I have a new phone Vodafone sent me for free sat in a drawer at home).

When we examined the car there were some undocumented scratches and stone chips so it was back to the Avis desk except there was a queue of about 20 people. So we sat in the sunshine until the queue went and the lady amended the documentation, not a problem as we sat quite contentedly in the sun on the harbour side with the small boats coming and going and the small town framed by the wooded hillsides. The forecast was for rain but its been glorious all day.

Our accommodation was only a 30 minute drive away so the Avis issue didn't bother us, perhaps if it had been raining and we had a fair distance to go we would have been annoyed. Picton is the gateway to the south, not much of a gateway, very small place, just the ferry terminal, the small harbour and nothing much else. Fiona does not like using the sat nav on my phone although we used it all the time in Australia last year, to hire a GPS is about £13 a day - a rip off. It would be cheaper to buy one.

We followed the phone instructions but with Fiona also reading the map, at one point the sat nav said turn right whilst our instructions and the map said straight on. I turned right. 5 minutes later we saw a small sign on the roadside - Cloudy Bay Winery.

So we stopped for a glass of fizz for Fiona and a small beer for me, lovely peaceful place. After that we continued onto our B&B, The Bell Tower. Really nice place, only 2 rooms, overlooking the vines with the mountains in the background. Our host recommended a wine tour and booked that for us for tomorrow afternoon. She also booked a restaurant for us tomorrow night. We already had one booked for tonight and she said she will drive us to both although we will need a taxi back, we could probably stumble back from one but Fiona has done enough falling over.

We relaxed in the sunshine for a couple of hours, one of us more relaxed than the other, no prizes for guessing who.