Two North Island-bound ferries moving up Queen Charlotte Sound towards Tory Channel (just visible a little ahead of and to the right of the topmost ferry)which gives access to Cook Strait, the 20 mile wide stretch of water separating the North and South Islands of New Zealand. The North Island is the finger of land just visible at extreme top right corner of picture.
The North Island ferry terminals are located at Wellington quite some distance off the picture at the top right. The top ferry is the Lynx fast ferry which has just passed a conventional ship type ferry. The Lynx, on a smooth sailing day will take about 75 minutes from its present position ro dock in Wellington while the other ferry will take about 1 hour 45 minutes from its present position.
Picton in Queen Charlotte Sound is the ferry terminal port for the South Island. Normal sailing times to Wellington are 2 hours for the Lynx, a catamaran type vessel or 3 hours for single hull conventional ship ferry types.