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They warned everyone that we would probably experience some roughness as we passed out of the eye of the storm and through its lower edge on the way south the 95 miles to Picton. After dinner at Toscana, we talked to Alex about squeezing us in at Polo Grill after we left Picton and then headed down and got ourselves into bed just before the 10pm departure. About 11:30 we were woken as we hit the zone of high winds and heavy seas. Since our cabin is at the very back of the ship, we generally expect more rocking and rolling. In fact we heard them moving all of the heavy teak furniture on the deck of the Terrace Cafe above us. If we had looked out onto our own deck, we would have seen that Liliya, our stewardess, had tied all of our deck furniture to the railing with the equivalent of water ski rope. So when we woke up, we basically closed any doors that were swinging and went back to bed. Rob said it probably lasted for a couple of hours, but Daryl is pretty sure she went back to sleep sooner than that.

We woke as we were coming through Queen Charlotte Sound to find that the sun was shining. Picton, where we docked, is a picturesque port town of about 4,000. It is essentially the gateway to the famous Marlborough wine area, home to a number of wines which are well thought of in the US. Marlborough is named after the British Duke and Blenheim, the major town, about 30 minutes from Picton, is named after his ancestral home in England. Our excursion meeting time was 11:45am so we had time for our usual high-protein breakfast, which lots of OJ for Daryl to get her going in the morning, and then watched the Interisland Ferry back up and into a narrow berth faster than Daryl (not Rob!) can back a car into a parking place. There were also sea planes zooming in and out of the bay.

Our bus departed a little late as they don't get as many visitors as the major ports, so only have a limited number of tour buses and we had to wait for the previous tour to come back. We had the combo of Reece and Annie to take us through Picton (or Pecton as Annie says), which looks like an attractive place for a short holiday with a couple of nice hotels and lots of little eating places. There is a 45 mile long walk around the edge of the Sound so if you are more athletically inclined than we are (almost anyone is!) you could have a nice scenic walk of almost any length. The water in the Sound is almost a tropical blue. We then headed to Blenheim through the mountains for our first stop, Omaka, or the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre. This is one of the world's largest private collections of World War I aircraft. The private owner of the planes and a lot of the memorabilia is Sir Peter Jackson of The Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit/King Kong, etc fame. It is also run with the assistance of some private trusts. He has more World War I planes near Wellington, where his studios are, and additional cars and some World War II planes at Omaka. Unfortunately, we only had an hour there and could have spent a day. In addition to the planes there are displays of uniforms and letters belonging to both famous/notorious names like Eddie Rickenbacker, the real Red Baron, Goring as well as average fliers and combatants. Jackson had a group called The Wingnuts help to set up the exhibits and maintain them. At least 9 of the original aircraft are maintained and able to fly and they have an air show every two years when they take some of them out. It was unfortunate that we only had a 45 minute tour with a man from a local group who always wanted to set this up, but did not have the cash and the impetus until Jackson got involved. He had lots of stories and it would have been really interesting in a one-on-one setting, rather than with a group who were only mildly involved.

Our second stop was the Moa Brewery, a premium microbrewery started by the son of a well-known local winemaker in 2003 and named after the Moa a huge prehistoric and long extinct bird of New Zealand. We tasted their pear cider, apple cider and a number of various beers. Since we are not really beer drinkers, our palates our perhaps not as refined, but we enjoyed what we had. They had recently taken all their beers to a competition in Dublin, Ireland for 500 brewers and had brought home the largest number of medals, seven, so were very proud.

Our third stop was a small local chocolate maker, where we could see them making the chocolate and taste two of them, both of which were excellent. We resisted temptation, unlike most on the bus, and bought nothing. We haven't even been eating the chocolates they put on the bed at night so have a little stockpile building.

We got back to the ship between 3:30 and 4:00 with the all aboard time being 4:30. They are offering free cocktails to the whole ship from 5-7 to thank everyone for putting up with all the weather-induced itinerary changes. We didn't want to join the free-for-all that comes with free liquor for 1,250 passengers, so Rob made us a Bloody Mary with the fixings in our cabin and we started in on the photos and journal. We have taken some breaks to watch the childrens' sailing classes, the arrival of the Interisland Ferry (according to Annie, you can get on a ferry, have morning tea, arrive in Wellington at 9am, go shopping, have lunch, get on the ferry, have a light supper or tea and be back in Picton by 9pm)and its backing into its spot again, and more seaplanes, then watch the tug tow us backwards until we could turn around and then head out of the Sound. There are lots of small bays with homes and even some homes on hillsides by the water where we saw no signs of roads or electricity. It is lovely and green due to the excess of rain that they get in the Winter months. Since they are in Fall now, these storms we have been fleeing may be a precursor to their Winter.

We have a choice of Polo Grill for steak or the Grand Dining Room tonight.