Ferry ride and US Politics

Friday, November 11^th, 2011- Ferry ride

Got up early and took off for ferry at 6:35 AM.   One of the ferries broke down, which is why the ferries are full and that we couldn’t change our day.  Thus, we were on one that usually just carried trucks and left 15 minutes earlier than our scheduled departure time of 8:30 AM.  – we did a spin arama as instructed by the loading crew, immediately after getting on the ferry, so that we were the second ones off the ferry, when we docked at the South Island.  Mostly semi-trucks and campervans on this crossing.

   Spectacular day for the ferry crossing, - so not being able to change our day for the ferry crossing ended up being most fortuitous, as this was a beautiful day.  We took a photo of a Dutch couple as we left Wellington (they had been in the same campervan park the night before), and they reciprocated.  Immediately after departure, a very friendly Brit/Kiwi began to describe some of the sites we were seeing from the ferry.  We spent the entire 3.5 hours standing outside on the deck talking.  His name was Chris Marsh, 53 years old, a Brit from Bristol who emigrated to NZ when he was  28 years old.  Chris was great and very knowledgeable about all things Kiwi, as well as being an expert about the US – he knew all about our politics, and knew more about the US Constitution than 99% of Americans, me included.  He knew most all of the first ten amendments in order (the Bill of rights), which I daresay, very few of us could rattle off.    As Donna noted in her journal (with some additions by yours truly) – By the time we got off the boat, we were sold on moving to Wellington, where Chris lives, or somewhere in NZ …… no law suits (so what do lawyers do Chris? – oh, mostly real estate), national health insurance, no crazy, divisive, polarizing politics, no massive debt (debt, not just massive), police don’t carry weapons, not a lot of ostentatious homes and cars, a fairly secular country – religion is pretty low key here, etc. 

So to venture off a bit and risk alienating a few readers (assuming there really is anyone actually reading this stuff), let’s take US politics.  US politics is on the news nightly in NZ, for one we are still the 800 pound World gorilla, so what happens in the USA is important to the rest of the world, but also because it is a comedy of the absurd.  Chris basically couldn’t believe (in his very nice relaxed manner) that anyone really took Sarah Palin or almost any of the current crop (think Rick Perry, Michelle Bachman, Herman Cain) of Republican contenders seriously.  NZ is actually governed by the center right party right now – the National Party – and they somewhat strengthened their hold on the parliament in the election held while we were there.  With that said, they would be considered left wingers by the current conservative Republican party in the US.  I actually watched a part of a NZ political debate in a campervan park while in NZ, and while there were differences between the candidates and parties to be sure, it was so much more civilized than the embarrassing jousting that is going on in the US right now.  Frankly, we are seen as a bunch of buffoons by the rest of the world.  Many years ago in Britain, and later by Donna in Vienna, etc. the sentiment was the same.   We come across as the 800 pound gorilla –our way or the highway, gun toting cowboys, arrogant, cold hearted (you know – what do you do about the unemployed person without health insurance – let em die yells the crowd).  The current state of political affairs in the US is very disheartening to me, but for pretty much opposite reasons held by the tea party faithful.  The most polarized and cold hearted it’s been in my lifetime -   Oh well, maybe at least this will prompt someone reading this to actually comment on the BLOG – you know something like – “Right on” or “Why don’t you just move to NZ you commie/pinko” or “you took the words right out of my mouth” or “how dare you, you self absorbed babbling idiot”or "nice photos Don" or "I could take better photos with my old Brownie camera" or something of your own creation.

Well let’s get back to the trip. The ferry goes from Wellington on the North Island to Picton on the South Island, passing through the Marlborough Sounds area on the South Island – a very beautiful area that I would love to come back to kayak or sail.  Let’s look at some pictures from the ferry ride while a few of you are still reading this.

 Wellington hillside

 Wellington harbor, skyline and city

 This is what our ferry looks like

 Wellington harbor, skyline and city

 Start of Ferry ride with Wellington in background

  Wellington hillside

 Cook Strait near Wellington

 Cook Strait near Wellington

 Picton

 Cook Strait near Wellington

 Cook Strait near Wellington

 Cook Strait near Wellington

 Cook Strait near Wellington

 Cook Strait near Wellington

 Cook Strait near Wellington

 Marlborough Sounds

 Chris Marsh and Donna

 Marlborough Sounds

 Marlborough Sounds

 Marlborough Sounds

 Marlborough Sounds

 Marlborough Sounds

 Marlborough Sounds

 Marlborough Sounds

Marlborough Sounds