Where Are Carol and Mickey?: Picton, New Zealand (South Island)

Days 70-73, Friday thru Sunday, November 3 - November 5

Leaving Napier early in the morning of November 3rd, we drove 5 hours to Wellington and boarded the Interislander Ferry for the South Island. It was interesting to experience the car ferry and ride it for about 2.5 hours to the South Island of New Zealand.

We landed in Picton to begin our experience of the Fjords of the north part of the South Island. We made our way to our AirBnb and settled into our new “home” for the next few days. We laughed as each of us took our “roles” and in just a little bit had everything in the cottage just as we like it. The view of the bay from our cottage is fabulous. We watched as two Interislander Ferries passed in the bay in front of us, one heading back to Wellington and another coming to Picton.

On Saturday, November 4th, we took a different ferry from Picton for a hike of part of The Queen Charlotte Track (Tōtaranui), a 73 km trail that began as a series of unconnected bridle paths built by European pioneers settling in the area, “discovered” and named by James Cook in 1770. The Queen Charlotte Walkway has been in development as a public walkway since the early 1980’s.

We began our hike (called a track here in New Zealand) in Resolution Bay. The track starts at Ship-Cove Bay, where Captain James Cook first landed. But we opted to start one section after Ship-Cove Bay.

We hiked along the beautiful, yet muddy trail for a little more than 6 miles. We stopped at the summit for a couple of pictures. We ended at Furneaux Lodge for a lovely lunch. The trail was quite muddy and slick, but we made it without incident other than very muddy clothes and shoes.

Our ferry ride back to Picton took us by way of several other stopping points for Queen Charlotte’s Track. Like the Appalachian Trail, you can do a part of the track or all of it. There are places to camp along the way if you choose to do all 73km (45.36 miles). There are even services that will help get gear from one point to another.

After our return, we walked around the town of Picton and ate at Sisu, a local’s favorite restaurant for small, sharing plates. It was delicious.

On Sunday, November 5th, we took some time in the morning to chill, watch some boating activity in the bay and make a plan for the day. Even though we hiked 6 miles yesterday, we decided to do another shorter hike nearer to Picton. The Tirohanga Walkway’s trail head is just down the road from our AirBnb. As we reached the summit of the trail after 2.5 miles and 730 feet of elevation gain, there were spectacular views of Picton’s town and harbor.

After the hike we went to Picton for lunch and to two museums. The first was a history of whaling in this area, a practice that ended in the 1960’s. The other museum contains the ship Edwin Fox in dry dock. We weren’t able to board the ship as they are working on it. But we saw all about the history of it and also saw the outside of it. Built in 1853, The Edwin Fox is one of the world’s oldest surviving merchant sailing ships. And another claim to fame is that it is the only surviving ship that transported convicts to Australia.

This is a picture near Picton town center. A cruise ship had landed earlier and the little town was inundated with “cruisers”. So we tried to find some out-of-the-way streets to avoid the crowds.

We returned to our AirBnb to pack and get ready for our travels tomorrow. We hiked down to the water’s edge from our cottage and took a couple of pictures. It’s been a beautiful place to hang out for a few days!