Day 4 - Havelock to Picton - Picton

We arrived at Picton around 1pm. I hadn't been to Picton since I was engaged to be married - now that was a long long time ago - probably 1981 or thereabouts. My memory is a bit hazy of Picton as we didn't really stop at the time, but it looked a bit bigger and a bit more trendy since I had seen it last..



Picton is nestled at the head of the Queen Charlotte Sound, at the top of the South Island. It's a busy port, as it's the main thoroughfare of the inter-island ferries that ply between the North and South Island of New Zealand, providing car and passenger transport. Picton isn't huge, but it is much bigger than Havelock. It has a population of 4000.

We stopped and parked in the main road, then got out and explored. Lots of cafes and art galleries, however I knew we were strapped for time, so I left the others in the art galleries and started exploring with my camera. This is the main road - the ice-cream parlour was great too! This was looking towards 'Blenheim' which is about a 20 minute drive away.



The other way looks towards the port, and also serves as a monument to those that died in World War I..



Through the monument, the steps take you down to the waterfront. You can see the inter-islander ferry to the left, getting ready for the next sailing.



Down the steps to the left, I found a kids paddling pool. No kids in it today becuause it was too cold, but plenty of seagulls having fun..



The blue of the water really offset the gulls, so I ended up taking another shot..



And another...



Aren't you lucky it finally flew away - or else there may have been 100 more...



Looking up the Queen Charlotte Sound towards Wellington..



I then walked around towards the marina - these kayaks were for hire. Would love to do this next time I'm down.



These look loads of fun too...



Like many of the old small towns around New Zealand, I find the building and architecture really interesting. Oxley's Hotel is no exception - a mixture of the original facade and the new..



Once again - I found another building with some great artwork on it, again very typical of the smaller towns. I love finding these works of art and I think they make the towns so interesting.



Time gets away with you when you're having fun, and today was no exception - we suddenly realised it was very late and we had to speed back to the farm as Carol had some mother duties to do. I still made her stop to take this image of the Richmond Ranges - the weather was packing up on this side of the valley.



These ranges are featured on the Cloudy Bay wine label, the ranges are beautiful and ever changing. Yet on the other side of the valley where we were, the hills were still basked in the late afternoon sun. So beautiful - I could feast my eyes on this sight all day long..



In a few months in midsummer, it'll all be brown - so enjoy this green while you can..