In perfect accord with my plan, we headed out even earlier than scheduled, battling some pretty serious wind which indicated the ferry crossing may be a bit rough today, so on the way we stopped in a very cute little cow town called Bull, of course! Everything in town was full of Bull, as the picture of a sign there indicates! We stopped at a pharmacy to get some Tylenol (which they had to look up to get an equivalent), and some joint tablets, and I was thinking about getting some dramamine for the crossing, but the pharmacist was pretty adamant that it would make me drowsy, and I didn't want that since I had more driving to do, so I decided to take my chances. We took a leisurely drive, and even with the stops along the way, we arrived at the ferry nearly an hour before check in. I considered walking to the terminal to do some computer work, since they advertised free wifi, but we were parked quite a ways away, and the wind was howling and cold, so I decided to wait until we were on the ship. We had bought a local newspaper at the grocery store where we had stopped to get a loaf of bread and some crackers which I hoped would settle my stomach on the rough seas, so we sat around and read that most of the wait the hour, which turned into two hours because of some loading trouble they were having. Eventually we were herded into the ferry, which was huge, and carrying dozens of semi tractor trailers, most with a double trailer. Unlike most ferries we've seen, where you drive in one end and out the other, this one you had to drive in, then turn around inside the ship, so that you're pointing out when disembarkation came. Crazy! Once we got the campervan parked inside, we went up into the enclosed area, and I found an electrical plug where I hooked up my computer, then tried to get wi-fi, which was no easy task. It was very intermittent and frustrating. In the end, I just waited until my computer was fully charged, then joined Hubby in watching an old movie they were showing in one of the lounge areas. Toward the end of the trip we decided that the 1 ½ hour ride in Glenorchy was too short, so I contacted them about a longer ride, so now we're set up with a 5 hour ride, which Hubby feels strong enough to do, having proven that with the ride yesterday. Looking, SO forward to that! We finally docked at a very late 5:30, and it was 6:00 by the time we were driving down the ramp into Picton. The original plan had been to drive to a DOC camp about and an hour and fifteen minutes away, but there was no water there except from a stream, so we decided on a Holiday Park in Blenheim only 20 minutes away, where we could do laundry and refill with water, as we had used up all of it with showers and dishwashing, and dump everything as well. We arrived and were settled in in a site by the river, with a gaggle of ducks wandering around, and that was just across from one of the laundry rooms, which also had a kitchen. Unfortunately, the laundry had two washers and only one dryer, so I had to wait for both. Eventually got that done, dinner made, and was getting ready for bed when I got a notice from Verizon that I had already used up my entire monthly allotment of data! In only THREE DAYS! I had been so careful about turning off my mobile data, but there were a couple of times when I just had to go online, but I had no idea what could have used up that much data in so short a time. Anyway, I ended up in a chat room with "Charlie" who assured me he could solve everything, but in the end my only recourse was to up my plan and stop using it, essentially. He connected me with someone who was supposed to walk me through exactly what used up the data, but that didn't turn out to be true. Anyway, make a long story short, I was on the phone arguing with them until well past 11:00, was sound wound up I had to read for awhile, then finally turned out the light and hit the hay. Or should I say Hard Hay, for this bed is not exactly soft!
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