North Island Trip: Ferry from Picton to Wellington

We started our two-week North Island trip by driving north to Picton and taking the Interislander ferry to Wellington. They apparently assume everyone going on the ferry has already done it before, because the lady at the booth gave no instructions -- didn't even say anything to greet me -- and only handed me a ticket and said Lane 5. According to several New Zealanders, this is an upgrade on the previous system. After more waiting in lines, we finally parked the car on the ferry and went up some stairs to the lounge area where we spent the next four hours trying to ignore the loads of kids running around. Then, after arriving late at night, I had to navigate downtown Wellington with its narrow streets and poorly-marked lanes in the rain. We found our Airbnb place okay and were glad to get in out of the rain.