On Thursday we landed in Picton via the Interislander Ferry, a three hour sail from Wellington through the Marlborough Sounds to the small port town of Picton. It was a pretty uneventful sailing, save for seeing three dolphins, and of course the amazing scenery of the Sounds.
Taking a short walk to Bob's Bay on our first afternoon in Picton we were amazed by the noise the crickets were making… I'll be adding a video to the picasa web album later. The waters in the Marlborough sounds are much warmer than the sea around Wellington, but unfortunately our swim had to wait till a few days later as we didn't have any swimming trunks with us.
Our main reason for staying in Picton was to take on the Queen Charlotte Track, or part of it at least! This is a 71km hike along the hilly ridges overlooking the Queen Charlotte and Kenepuru sounds, truly breathtaking scenery. The fjord-like geography of the area is thanks to sinking mountains - what we see above the waterline are the peaks of ancient mountains that have slowly sunk into the sea. We walked the last 22km of the QC Track, from Torea bay to Anakiwa. Though its longer than the Tongariro Alpine Crossing it is a much easier walk, after the first steep climb from sea level to about 400m its quite easy going, Justyna and I managed the walk in just under 5 hours including a 40 minute detour to Misletoe Bay to fill up on drinking water. We made such good time on our walk that we even had an hour to spend lazing in Anakiwa waiting for our water taxi back to Picton. While I was trying to take a nap a duck and her brood of ducklings thought I had some sneaky snacks hidden somewhere and they came inquiring… they were confident enough to let me pick them up!
In Picton we were staying at Sequoia Lodge, so named after the large Californian Redwood planted in front of their main entrance. This is a great place to stay if you're passing through Picton - not only is it a really cosy and friendly place, you get free internet access, breakfast and tea and coffee, they also give you free hot chocolate pudding and ice cream at 8 o'clock every evening! A truly delicious way to end the day. Another perk offered to guests at the Sequoia are free mountain bikes, so on Saturday, thinking that we're fit enough, Justyna and I borrowed the bikes for a morning, hoping to tackle the mountain bike track in Picton. Unfortunately it proved too challenging for us, so we took the easier route and cycled to Waikawa Bay. In the afternoon we took a refreshing swim in the beautiful waters of the aforementioned Bob's Bay, our first real swim since we were in Auckland all those weeks ago!
On Sunday we boarded the TranzCoastal train down to Kaikoura, about which you can read more in my next update!
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