23DEC2019 – DAY 10: THE TRANSITION

We left Christchurch at 6:00AM to head for Kaikoura to get our cruise ship to ferry us across from the South Island to the North Island. Of the initial full group, there were 12 of us left who would make the journey across to the North Island. We were given our tickets and told the cruise ship would be leaving in 30 minutes and any delay would result in being left behind on the South Island. I used my time wisely to go find a quick bite to eat a few blocks away. I found a small coffee shop that had Ben & Jerry’s pints! I grabbed one, paid for it, and booked it back to the loading area. Making it back with 7 minutes to spare and an already quite melted pint of ice cream, we all boarded the ship that would bring us to our destination on the North Island in 4 hours. The cruise ship left for Wellington and we all immediately went down to deck 3 to check out what movies would be playing in the mini-theater. The two movies that would be playing were Last Christmas and The Addams Family. I didn’t mind which movie we saw, but the vote otherwise was unanimous for Last Christmas. The showing was to start in 20 minutes so everyone stood around and talked (while I finished my pint of ice cream). After a few minutes, half the group had decided to go up to the bar on deck 7 and grab a few drinks to bring into the theater with us. The movie attendant couldn’t have cared less! As the theater door was opened, our friends had returned from the bar with quite a bit more than “a few” drinks. Packed into the last 2 rows of the theater, we settled in to watch Last Christmas, which turned out to be very relatable with a major recurring theme of “look up”. After the movie, the lights turned on and as we walked out of the theater, I could see (and smell) a lot of spilled wine and other drinks. I never found out if the scream I heard about 1/3 into the movie was because the wine bottle broke or if it was just spilled. Either way, wine was wasted and that’s never a good thing! Being just about halfway to the North Island, I went up to the deck 8 (the highest deck allowed for passengers) and walked around outside. I found a nice spot to view the open waters around us and felt quite at peace just letting the wind whip around as I stood there. I took a few videos in which I lightly taunted several family members who would not have had the stomach to be out there on that deck. I spent a little longer enjoying the ocean breeze and then snapped a few pictures and went back inside. When we got to Wellington, we were joined by 4 new group members for dinner and then went to the hotel and said bye to 3 more of the original group leaving us that night.