Blogs from Picton, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 19

Farewell! A bientot... read more

We're currently in Wellington, New Zealand, and taking the opportunity to post an update on our week and a half touring the South Island of New Zealand. Let us preface this entry by saying if you ever have an opportunity to vacation here -- take it! There's great natural beauty, interesting small towns and a relaxed attitude amongst locals and travellers alike. We started off in Christchurch, the 2nd largest city and most English place in this country. The center of activity is the Cathedral Square, where people hang out, entertainers perform, and Christchurch's very own wizard pontificates daily to the listening throngs. He occasionally encounters hecklers, which makes for an entertaining exchange. The city has a beautiful, peaceful river flowing through the center, on which tourists enjoy punt rides - very reminscent of Oxford - ... read more

Before catching the Ferry on Monday I had a few hours to kill in Wellington - easily filled by taking the cute little red cable car up to the terminus at Kelburn, a suburb on the hill with houses built up above the road - only accessible by some fairly steep stairways! I had my breakfast at a little caf'e in Kelburn and then wandered back down to the city through the Botanical Gardens. The gardens are arranged on the hillside behind the city and there's native plants, loads of ferns of course, a scent garden (mmm!!!), a peace waterfall, several attractive sculptures, a rose garden and even an old cemetary with rather impressive headstones and monuments. At the bottom of the gardens the cemetary is rather rashly divided by a motorway, so I thought that ... read more

On the 29th we boarded the Santa Regina ferry and headed to the South Island. We left Wellington harbour around 1pm and arrived in Picton at 4:30pm. It was a pretty windy day but the crossing wasn’t too rough. Once we entered the Marlborough Sounds we saw a Mama Dolphin and her baby. Once arriving in Picton we spent one night and organized our Queen Charlotte Track for the end of the month. The next morning we headed for the west coast.... read more

So we have finally reached Picton - the last major town on our journey round the South Island the departure point for our ferry over to the capital city Wellington on the North Island. After leaving Franz Josef Glacier we headed up the West Coast of the SI towards Hokitika. Hokitika is one of the arty capitals of NZ, and the main place to invest in the traditional souvenir from NZ - Pounamu. Pounamu is of course Nephriti Jade - Greenstone. It is revered by the Maori's as a treasure, and a symbol of one's Mana. Pounamu ( is a highly prized hard nephrite jade found in New Zealand and parts of Australia. It is composed of chlorite and epidote which makes the stone a mid-to-dark green colour. Greenstone rocks are generally found in rivers. They ... read more