I will be crossing between Picton and Wellington towards the end of October 2007. I have booked a rental car through Apex Rentals. I have basically two options open to me.
1. Take the 5:45am Interislander ferry and drive my rental car on in Picton and off again in Wellington (the 9:50 ferry is fully booked on that day)
2. Take the 8:00am Bluebridge ferry and terminate my rental car agreement in Picton and start a new rental car agreement in Wellington.
My questions are:
a) Is the first hour of the voyage worth doing in daylight from a scenery perspective? (I will miss this if I take the 5:45am ferry as it will still be dark at that time)
b) Is it difficult to turn in the rental car in Picton, wrestle one's luggage on and off the ferry and then pick up a new rental car in Wellington? (especially if it is raining and keeping in mind that Apex's office is at the Interislander terminal which is a kilometer away from the Blueridge terminal)
I would be very grateful to hear from people who have:
- Travelled on the Bluebridge ferry
- Done the crossing at 5:45am
- Done the crossing later
- Wrestled their luggage through embarkation and disembarkation
- Driven their car on and off the ferry.
Help, advice and experiences would be greatly appreciated 
Inter Island Ferries
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Did the crossing from Wellington to Picton at 8 or 8.30am. Found it difficult to find our car hire desk to find out where to leave the car at so it was a bit of a panic for us. Picton was more straight forward though we were in a queue for AGES to get our next car. The ferry luggage wrestle thing wasnt too bad.
The journey was fairly interesting until it got rough and I was seasick!
We decided we would definitely fly next time we go - to save time.Our return journey to Wellington was delayed as the ferry was running late and the car hire person meeting us wasnt there. We wasted 2 hours trying to get it all sorted. As long as youre with one of the popular hire companies - this won't happen.
There are some very reasonably priced flights on the Air New Zealand website -remember to type in nz and not.com as it seems to be cheaper!
Sorry not done the other ferry!
This past Spring we took the Bluebridge ferry from Picton to Wellington (late morning departure, pleasant trip). We had a rental car (Apex) which we returned at the Interislander terminal, where we checked in our luggage and took the bus service (which they provided) to the Bainbridge terminal. We did not have to worry about our checked luggage. Since we didn’t have car for our Wellington stay, on arrival there we picked up our luggage and hired a taxi to take us to our hotel. Apex rental was very helpful and made the car rental return very convenient. Actually we were impressed with this car rental company.
Correction: meant to write Bluebridge terminal, not Bainbridge terminal.
carylspall and kathleen: Thank you both so much for you very helpful posts. On the journey from Picton to Wellington was the scenery from the ship during the first hour of the voyage worth seeing, or would you not be bothered if you had missed it?
kathleen: I was extremely interested in your comment that you checked in your luggage at the Interislander terminal and THEN took the bus to the Bluebridge terminal. That is very useful to know. So you can drop off your hire car at the Interislander terminal and check in there then travel by bus to the Bluebridge terminal and board the Bluebridge ferry. And you had no trouble collecting your luggage at the Bluebridge terminal in Wellington? I presume that your already checked in luggage rode on the same bus as you to the Bluebridge terminal. Thank you. I can't imagine where else I would have got such useful information
Yelpir,
I really have no idea whether the luggage was on the same bus as we were. The bus was packed with people.
On the Wellington side, I do not recall any problem in picking up the luggage. I do remember that when we left the ferry terminal we had to go across the street to the train station to get a taxi to the hotel.
The ferry trip over to Wellington was pleasant but not extraordinary for scenery. Therefore I didn't take many shots, which, for me is unusual.
I hardly took any photos - very unusual for me! New Zealand is just packed full of photo oppeortunities, but this wasn't exciting.
The drive along the north coast of the south island was absolutely stunning. We hardly had time to stop as we were hurrying for the ferry back to Wellington.There were so many photo stops on that stretch.