Queen Charlotte Track to Picton

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Our water taxi back to Picton is not due until 10:30 and we are up early since we went to bed early last night. We have time to go to the resort next door for a nice breakfast then walk across Torea Road all the way to the other bay to be picked up. The total walk takes about 30 minutes and we feel our legs as we climb up then down the road but surprisingly we are not that sore. There is a little shed on the dock to sit and wait for the water taxi. Of course, it doesn’t arrive until about 11:30 pm but we talk to a nice family from Blenheim that is fishing from the dock. We get back to Picton and walk to The Villas. They have a room ready for us so we collect the bags they stored for us and get settled in our room.
Michael is anxious to get on the internet to make fantasy football picks so takes off for the internet café. I stay at The Villas to look at brochures for our next adventure. After the wine tour tomorrow we will go to Motueka. It is the largest city near the gateway to Abel Tasman National Park. As I look through brochures on the Abel Tasman Track it is a little complicated since there are some water crossings that must be made during low tides. Michael comes back and we decide it would be better to walk the track in the opposite direction of the brochures. We aren’t sure if it would be better to take a water taxi or bus to the start of the track so we will spend a day in Motueka to get our trip organized. There is only one bus to get us from Picton to Nelson then we must transfer to the Abel Tasman shuttle to get to Motueka. We get our bus trip and accommodations booked then will handle all other arrangements in Motueka.
We went back to the café, Quest, that we enjoyed for lunch the first day in Picton to have dinner. It was wonderful, as expected. Back at The Villas we saw Jenny that we hiked with on the first day at Queen Charlotte Track. She was busy telling three guys about her adventure. We also saw Michael and Petra. They are leaving in the morning to continue their holiday by car.

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