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| Our route through the sounds |
After spending a month on the North Island, we camped one last night in Wellington before our early ferry ride back to the South Island. We had one last activity planned at the tip of the South Island before heading back down to Queenstown to leave for Australia - a mail run in the Marlborough Sounds.
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| The small port of Picton |
The Marlborough Sounds are an intricate and beautiful web of islands and peninsulas many of which include areas that are totally wild. Access to much of the sounds is difficult and some are only reached by boat. Surprisingly, there are quite a few private residences and a few bed and breakfasts which manage to survive in such isolation. Even though the sounds are only sparesly populated, the government stil has to get their mail to them somehow. Instead of requiring them to come in and check a P.O. box, they send a "mail run" ship out a few times a week to deliver the mail. They allow a few public passengers to accompany the mail ship so Sean and I signed up for one.
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| Our tiny mail boat |
Our postman was a animated and friendly local who had the mail boat driving business down to a science. He pointed out interesting spots along the way such as past shipwrecks, Maori legends and wildlife all while navigating through relatively rough seas. I couldn't believe that we didn't get lost; as we moved deeper and deeper into the sounds I completely lost all sense of direction.
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| Pigs waiting patiently for their treats after the mail gets delivered |
Our particular mail run was fairly intense - we boarded the boat at 1:30 and were told that we wouldn't get back to our port in Picton until 6pm. It took all that time just to deliver mail to ten different families - crazy!
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| An over eager customer |
For most of the mail run we were snoozing, enjoying the scenery and sipping on coffee. But hands down my most favorite part of the trip was watching the interactions between the postman and the locals. And the locals not only included humans but pigs, goats and dogs as well. As we neared each dock, the postman called the family on the radio to alert them to meet him at shore. As we got closer and closer to each dock there was always some sort of pet either waiting excitedly for our boat or running down the beach in great anticipation.
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| Pigs waiting on the docks |
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| Meeting the local dogs |
The goats, pigs and dogs were so excited because the postman kept a stash of treats right inside his window which he doled out generously. He told us that though he had been bitten a few times his favorite part about delivering the mail was seeing all of his animal friends. The only major problem he had had with this was when a huge pig got too excited and jumped on the boat. He said it was next to impossible to lift it back up to the dock and now keeps the main door closed.
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| Shores of the Sounds |
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