After waking up no worse for wear from the night before, we had to be off early for the ferry. Final check in for the 10.30 sailing was 10am, so there was no dawdling involved.
The day, like so many before, was fine and sunny. We had a beautiful crossing.
Matt reckons that he’d do just that 3 hour crossing again and again. It really is one of the under-sung parts of New Zealand tourism. The journey through the sounds is just beautiful -
– soft (for New Zealand) green hills covered in bush, isolated settlements, and just the untouched nature of all the hills and islets. We passed various aquaculture activities (mussels and salmon), and as we got closer to Picton more evidence of logging.
After checking in to our motel in Picton, we had a wander and a late-ish lunch, and then Matt had a little snoozle (the poor wee darling). Much to our surprise, the fire &/or accident alarm at the local volunteer brigade is an honest-to-goodness cold war air raid siren. Kath had much mirth watching Matt wake up after the siren sounded three long wails at 5pm. “What is it??!?!? What is it!?!?!? Tsunami? Earthquake?” Young Kath enjoyed very much saying to the sleep addled Matt amidst the wailing sirens “Ze Germanz??”
That evening saw our first fix of fush and chups (fish and chips, for the rest of us non-NZers) which we ate by the waterfront as the evening crept in. The sunset was just perfect! A beautiful progression from bright sun, through the yellows, reds and oranges to blue and purple of night.
After dinner we wandered back to the motel via the supermarket, and bought a few essential supplies and stuff for making lunch for the next day.
30 January 2008
Today we went on a boat trip in the Sounds. It was on one of the mail boats, but we were dropped off first for 2 hours on Moturoa Island.
Moturoa is a Department of Conservation operated bird sanctuary, similar to Kapiti, but smaller and with a different mix of birds. And the sound of the birds! It was just fantastic. If you read accounts written by the early European settlers and their comments about the noise, you can believe them as true when you go to Moturoa. It was just astounding. We mainly heard only the birds, with the occasional boat engine in the distant background.
We saw some of the usual suspects, with Huia,
Tui and Bellbirds, but the big treat were the blue penguins in their nesting boxes.
The track we walked went to a lookout on the top of the island, and the view was astoundin Moturoa is also famous for being the spot where Captain Cook claimed the Sounds for England.
That, and being only 2 of 4 people on the island. It was really rather special. After being picked up by the next boat, we headed off to Ship Cove
This memorial is for the ships of the various Cook expeditions which visited the Sounds.
The mail boat then travelled off around the sounds, dropping off trampers for the Queen Charlotte track and mail and essential supplies for the various homesteads and settlements along the route. The captain of the boat also had a ready supply of dog biscuits for the canine inhabitants!.
We also detoured around a salmon farm, and saw not only many nice tasty beasties, but also lazing fur seals around the empty tanks. Apparently they are a real menace for the farmers, but are also quite happy to take advantage of the empty parts of the farm to catch some rays and snooze.
It was a lovely morning, and a trip on one of the mail boats has to go on the to do list for people visiting Picton.
After getting back to Picton, and after some lunch, we headed off on a walk. The original plan was to do the Snout Walk, but that was looking to be 3 or 4 hours. Yeah, right. So instead we did the shorter Bobs Bay walk. It was quite pretty, and some parts of the track were surprisingly steep, but the walk was worth the effort. We sat for a while and watched the boats going in and out of the harbour, before heading back on the cliff track – or the Lower Bobs Bay Track. It was about 2 hours return, so just energetic enough without exhausting us. While we didn’t hear the variety of birds we had in the morning, it probably didn’t matter as the sound of the cicadas drowned out most other noises. Apart from the Bluesounds ferry (the rival to the Interislander). That is one noisy vessel!
We then headed back to the motel to do some much needed washing in a machine – rather than just in the hotel room basin!
31 January 2008
Today we headed off from Picton to Christchurch on the train. The train was a little late (about 40 minutes) getting in to Picton, but we weren’t in a hurry, so it didn’t bother us too much.
The trip down to Christchurch is long, and for the most part there isn’t a lot of spectacular scenery. We did, though, see seals near Kaikoura, which was pretty cool. The rest of the trip was putting up with listening to a Dutch doctor talking to a Kiwi couple, and wondering if the pair of American ladies sitting opposite us brought in to New Zealand the water bottles they were drinking out of – you know, there’s that question at customs about bringing food stuffs in to the country, ladies!
Our hotel, when we finally got there, had to be the smallest room we have stayed in together! We were staying at a place called “Hotel Off the Square”, so it’s centrally located, but we weren’t overly impressed. The room was very small, the toilet included a bidet, and it was very noisy. Not so much from the trams, which stop running at about 10pm, but from hoons in the street, and drunkards (no, not us!) piling out of a nearby pub.
Next, we’re off to Twizel and picking up our rental car.
Kathy commented to Matt at dinner that it’s as though our holiday really only started the day we got on the ferry – no work colleagues, just the 2 of us. So far, that seems to be true.
