Discovering Picton

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With only a few hours sleep I am actually fairly awake (luckily) and by 9am I am on the bus, waving goodbye to Nelson and heading for Picton, my next stop. The bus retraces the route we came, through the windy Ria valley to Blenheim, from there is it then a fairly flat and scenery wise uninteresting drive to Picton, arriving at midday.

The hostel I am staying at, is actually the sister of the one in Nelson…yes that’s right, more chocolate pudding. And has the same lovely chilled and very friendly atmosphere, however this hostel is a lot queiter, with just myself, and one other lady arriving in the evening in the 6 bed dorm….result!

I have a lovely afternoon, having a quick scoot round Picton, trying to get my head round the contrast of the very modern and impressive marina area to the run down and bizarre shops which occupy the rest of the town (aka the high street, as this place is tiny!).

I then head out on the Snouts Track walk, the furthest walk along the headland. After the initial climb and great views of the harbour area, it is the a rather tedious walk through the forest, until suddenly WHAM the trees disappear and the most amazing view opens up in front of me! It has to rank in one of my top 5 views so far in New Zealand, welcome to the Marlbrough Sounds. Unlike Milford and Doubtful, these are real sounds – carved by liquid rather than ice. As far as the eye can see, there are rolling forested hillsides and island rising out to crystal clear turquoise waters.

After I am treated to this view, I have to walk for a little longer in the forest, until the end of the land, where I sit on the perfectly positioned bench and drink in the view.

I reach the village around 4.30pm, bump into a German guy from the hostel at the marina, and we chat in the sunshine for a while, overlooking the water, before we head back to the hostel. I have a lovely evening chatting to several other people, including a German girl who has been an opare in Australia for 9 months, and loved it, before watching a movie with some of the others in the TV room and heading to bed.

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