Stop 2: Picton

Sunrise from the ferry in Wellington

I woke up super early to catch the ferry over to South Island. I got way more than I bargained for and it was one of the favorite things I did. The bus ride from Auckland to Wellington had disappointed me a little bit. It was pretty, but not the spectacular scenery I had expected. The ferry took us through the Marlborough Sounds and all I could think of was “THIS is what I came to New Zealand for!” I met Silvan, a guy from Switzerland, on the ferry and I’m pretty sure by the end he thought I was crazy. I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face and I was actually hopping around in excitement. 

Ferry coming into Marlborough Sounds

Picton from the Ferry

We pulled into Picton and it had to be the quietest town I’ve ever been in. There were probably hundreds of people on the ferry, but apparently no one decided Picton was worth staying in. I checked into my hostel (of which I was the only one staying there so far) and walked around town. I probably saw 3 people in the few hours I walked around and it was a Saturday! 

I went to the maritime museum and saw this really old ship that used to sail all over the world. It was pretty interesting. I walked around town (probably a whole mile radius) and went back to the hostel and watched the Olympics with the staff (all travelers who are doing working holidays) and three more people checked in. The couple was pretty unsociable, but I became friends with an Argentinean named Agustin.

The harbor from the shores of Picton

 

The boat sat in tidal waters for a long time. The wood has rotten between the heights of the tides because the wood continually got wet and exposed to air.

The next day we walked the Snout Walkway. It was more difficult than I expected, but absolutely beautiful and we saw sea lions (or seals or something similar) playing in the water at the end of the point. The scenery felt so surreal and I couldn’t believe what I was looking at. In the first few weeks I had to remind myself I was in New Zealand at least once a day because it was so incredibly beautiful it didn’t feel real. A lot more people showed up in the hostel that night (including a Texan) and we sat around and chatted and played some spoons. There was an older Aussie guy, probably in his 70s that was throwing out jokes all night. My favorite was “A lady was with her husband and said ‘I love you, I don’t know what I would do without you.’ Her husband said, ‘is that you or the wine talking?’ She said ‘that’s me talking to the wine’.”

Walking the Snout Track

At the end of Snout Track. If you look closely, in the middle you can see the sea lions swimming.

Sailboats make any picture prettier.

Agustin and I did another hike(or tramp as they call it here) in the morning for about 1.5 hours to a viewpoint over the city, but it was really foggy so we couldn’t see much. Unfortunately the fog cleared up on our way down, but we couldn’t wait because we had to catch our bus (we happened to be going to the same place). The walk took us through the other side of Picton that was absolutely beautiful.

Foggy view from the viewpoint

beautiful walk down.