Blogs from Picton, Marlborough, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 2

Got the ferry to the south Island early the next day. really excited. Ferry trip was spectacular through the Marlborough Sounds on the way into Picton. Arrived in Picton and got settled into hostel. Spent the afternoon on Bobs Beach swimming in the sea. Feel so much better here. Its true what they say that the more people there are the lonelier you can feel. Here I felt really relaxed and more like my old self again. Had 'fush and chups' for tea (with Shark) and got into a debate with an australian girl who rekoned that the aussies had invented our national dish. The bloody cheek. Back at the hostel, on the way to the kitchen, had the unfortunate experience of coming face to face with several elderly german gentleman 'relaxing' in their birthday suits ... read more

Diving. Those who have been reading my blog will know that this sport that I favour has somewhat eluded me of late. Not any more. At least not entirely. I had booked myself on a trip to go out to dive the Mikhail Lermontov, said to be one of the worlds largest divable cruise ship wrecks. However my luck just aint that great. I didn't get out to the Lermontov due to high winds, but I did get to dive. The trip out to the dive site was one of the most beautiful ever. An hour of motoring through a deep valley between green mountains, complex bay systems and dramatic cloud formations. The diving itself was good - but not the best I've done. Forget the thin wetsuits like I wore in the Coral Sea - ... read more

Howdy doo di? We’ve just had a couple of nights in a place called Picton, situated at the North East point of the South Island. It’s a nice enough little town; a few nice beaches in the area &some small cafes and bars, although its main pulls are A) it’s where you catch the enormous ferry to the North Island, and B) it’s very close proximity to the Queen Charlotte Sound Walking track. We didn’t have enough time do any tramping on this occasion as we needed to get back to Nelson for our second sailing course, however we didn’t want to waste our time here either - so in the end we plumped for a 5 hour cruise on a mail boat delivering letters and parcels, groceries and other provisions to the remote homesteads and ... read more

Picton On our last evening we looked up two friends of Joanne's from Scoraigh(?) and had a good time. Lovely evening. Next morning started brilliantly and we got off on the 10am ferry into the Tory Channel of the Sounds. Half way across the Cook Strait we hit a storm which made the ferry bend over and everyone scuttle inside. It went up and down a bit then. What a change! I'm not sure about this North Island. Wellington Luckily when we prepared the bike and ourselves for the ride into Wellington centre the rain stopped. It was still cool though. However, weather has now improved. We saw Les Arts Sauts on Friday night, The Producers on Saturday night. Visited Te Papa, their wonderful national museum opened fairly recently and right up to date with its ... read more

Hi everyone, We arrived in Picton yesterday from North Island ... we had a really great crossing. Calm sea and sunshine so we were up on deck all the time. The crossing takes about 3 hours in all and we were in sight of land the whole time. The crossing is through 'The Sounds' which are mountains coming down into the sea ... bit like the highlands on sea!! Breathtaking scenery. Just to cheer you all up, the weather has been a mixed bag since we last wrote ... rain, sun, hot and cold winds! Sometimes it felt like all four at once. The day we left Ohope was raining but John still surfed ... good wet suit. We travelled from there to Gisborne (wet) onto Napier (sunny) where we found a great beech miles from ... read more