Picton

Many people may think of Picton as the place you get off the ferry when you are going from Wellington to the South Island – or where you get on the ferry to Wellington if you are traveling in the opposite direction.  But there is more to Picton than a ferry terminal and a rental car pickup (or drop-off).

First is the chance to sit by the water and relax.  We found a great little place, the Bay Vista Waterfront Motel, on Waikawa Road.  The motel itself was quite nice.  The location was absolutely fantastic.  Not only could you see the boats on Waikawa Bay, which has, I believe, the third largest private marina in New Zealand (or at least the South Island), but you could also see the ferries as they came into and left from the terminal.  It was so beautiful we didn’t go out to dinner.  We went to the local Fresh Choice food store and bought a roasted chicken, which we ate while sitting on our porch, looking out at the water.

Picton is also a great location for walking the Queen Charlotte Track and cruising Queen Charlotte Sound.  We took one of the walks with Beachcomber Fun Cruises.  They take you out to the track and then pick you up at the end of the day.  You pick where you want to get dropped off based on how long you want to walk.  It was great.  I highly recommend it.  Plus you get to cruise the sound on the way out and back.  They even have walks for people not used to hiking or tramping.  The Natures Best 2 walk was just right for us.

We also went on a Greenshell Mussel Cruise.  It was okay.  Basically, they just cruise out to some of the mussel farms.  They stop, look around a while, and then cook some mussels – mussels they bought on shore that morning.  The best part, which we were lucky to see, was a mussel boat “laying” new mussel lines.  That was quite interesting, but I don’t think it happens all the time.  The process is very mechanized today, compared to how it was done even 20 years ago. 

Perhaps the most interesting thing about the Greenshell Mussel Cruise was driving Queen Charlotte Drive to get from Picton to Havelock (where the cruise leaves from).  Queen Charlotte Drive has great views, but is very curvy.  The speed limit for most of the way is 50 kph, but it didn’t matter.  I couldn’t have gone faster than that anyway.  I was glad that I wasn’t doing it my first day in New Zealand.  Also, driving to Havelock from Picton (on the left side of the road and therefore close to the hills) was very different than driving back to Picton (close to the edge, with nothing in some places and just a simple wood fence in others {like that is going to stop you from falling off}).

Picton is also a good location from which to visit the Marlborough wineries.  We stopped at Cloudy Bay, of course, and had lunch at the smaller Hans Herzog winery.  I’m not a wine drinker, so I will defer to my wife on the tasting part, but the lunch at Hans Herzog was very good.

Finally, one somewhat embarrassing personal note:  I tend to blow my nose fairly loudly.  (I get it from my mother.)  When I blew my nose one morning at the motel, ducks started waddling up to our room.  I guess they thought they had found a friend!

Comments

[Sue]

We really liked the ducks and the view.