19 February

Last night was wild. The tent shuddered and, at times, the walls bent inward to touch our heads as we slept. Well Ron slept. The zips unfastened themselves. Oddly, when I got up and went outside it was a beautiful warm starry night. At times the wind died away completely,  but not often.
We packed up and left Featherston bound for the ferry. It was with some trepidation on my part. I have never ever had a rough ferry crossing and I have crossed Foveaux Strait,  Cook Strait,  Bass Strait,  and the English Channel.
And we had the smoothest crossing ever. No white caps. No wind. But slow.  We were an hour late getting in. We tried the backpackers, given the forecast,  but they had nothing,  so we went to Alexander's Campground and set up the tent. About 9 o'clock we were told we could use a cabin but would have to share it. We were in with a young Polish couple.  They sensibly took their tent down. We didn't.  It started to rain about 10 pm.