This morning we are taking a walk past the harbour and up the coast. It is called Bob’s Bay Walk. We saw three different kinds of star fish in the harbour. This trek is supposed to be a 30 minute walk. It too is quite vertical in many ways with continuous views of the strait. The view is quite beautiful. My legs are aching from yesterday, and so are Alan’s. The walk winds its way down the east side of the Picton harbour. The walk is fairly easy at first with a few uphill climbs that bring back memories of our steep climb yesterday.
We finally get to Bob’s Bay. It is a small beach that would be a great place to have picnics and play at the shore. The water is clear with lots of wildlife in the water, sea birds, more star fish, mussels and sea cumbers are just along the water’s edge. There is a large sign posted at the bay indicating what you can and cannot do. You are not allowed is camp which is unfortunate as this would be a beautiful place to set up a tent site. Up in the trees a along the shore and just at the end of the bay we see a blue tent. Someone was enjoying the spot!
There are numerous trails that intersect Bob’s Bay trail. We take the trail to the Picton Harbour lookout on the way back. This trek climbs up a short way then heads along the side of the hill towards town. A fantail comes and chats at us for a few minutes. They are a pretty little bird that likes to talk to walkers. It is a nice return trip and we get some good pictures of the Interisland ferry coming in as well as some youth having their Saturday morning sailing lesson.
After lunch we head into town to catch the mail run. The boat leaves at 13:30 sharp and we are off on another adventure. On Saturday the mail boat goes out to the furthest reaches of the Queen Charlotte Strait. They take mail for free to local people, not holiday homes and pick up travelers along the way. Many of these people only receive their mail once a week on this Saturday run. They also drop off parcels and groceries. Locals can email the grocery store their order and they pay $3 for delivery on mail day.
On the boat provide free coffee and tea and once we hit the upper head of the Strait it turns quite cold.
Water temperatures at this time of the year are around 9 deg C so between water temperature and air temperature the upper deck is cool and a hot cup of coffee warms the hands.Our first stop is at a dock with no buildings; here we pick up a traveler, Joy a local who travelled overland for 45 minutes to catch a ride. Her sheep farm is on the other side of the hill. Joy has a large farm where they raise Merino sheep. I had such an interesting discussion with Joy.
The scenery is beautiful and we see seals, dolphins and lots of mountains along the way.
At one pier we see three pet pigs that follow the gentlemen out to pick u
p his mail. He prompts them a bit by feeding them a bit of bread, which they quickly devour on the pier in front of us.At another stop in the journey we stop to see the Capt Cook monument. Cook came to New Zealand 5 times in the 1700’s and claimed this land for England. There is an amazing monument to his endeavors.
Further along we stop to pick up passengers who were dropped off in the morning and hiked through the Queen Charlotte Trails for the day. The boat is now filled and the tour back is packed with people. The boat docks at 18:00hrs back in Picton.
Tonight we are eating out. Most of the restaurants are closed on the main street. Alan had seen a sign at the local ROA, like the legion in Canada, and they were advertising a roast dinner. We head in that direction and end up meeting a couple from the boat trip. The four of us had a great dinner of roast potatoes, just like my Mum’s, roast chicken or pork, pumpkin (squash), peas and gravy for about $8 Canadian. The other couple is Australian and we have a great yarn. They often fly to NZ for holidays as it is a cheap flight. There was a live band that was quite good that played during dinner and into the evening. We had a very nice dinner.
Friday Oct 30th, 2009
Today we have our flat whites at the Dog and Frog Café. We spend the morning exploring the town. It is quite nice.
You can ride on the mail boat to the Queen Charlotte Islands and the coast and it is about a six hour ride on Saturday. We book it!
A local lady recommended the hikes around the harbour and above the town. The Tirohanga Track is quite close to our lodgings. It is quite an uphill treck for 45 minutes. Most of the trail is about a foot and a half wide with sheer drops. As we climb upwards the path forms switch backs to reach the summit. It was a grueling walk upwards…my muscles were complaining. I think Alan’s were too! After almost one hour we have reached the summit and it is worth it. The top was very cool and misty. It felt like rain was on its way. The surroundings were beautiful as you could look over the top in both directions.
Tonight we are eating pan browned kumera, a stir fry of onions and silverbeet – we call it swish chard and fresh New Zealand steaks. They call them Scotch Steaks and we call them rib eye. It was a great dinner. We met a young couple from Calgary, Scott and Christine. Scott works for the Calgary Stampede, and Christine is working as a technical writer. They are travelling from Christchurch to the North Island where they are going to retrace some or our steps.
Thursday 29th October 2009
We took the ferry from Wellington to Picton today. The ferry is a bit bigger than the Manotoulin Ferry. Our tickets were printed wrong, so we were there for the morning ferry but couldn’t get on until the afternoon. We had terrific southern winds that were almost at the force of Tuesday’s winds. I knew that I would not enjoy a three hour ferry ride in this weather. I purchased “sealegs” for motion sickness and they seemed to work. The ferry was going up and down with such ferocity waves of sea water were splashing the upper decks and windows. I was fine, until I stopped knitting, then I was not well. At least the feelings of sea sickness only lasted a short while. Since the weather was extreme, they asked all passengers to remain seated. Stewards came around with ice, bags and face cloths for the passengers. They had people with shop vacs cleaning promptly where needed. They also had people to help those in distress as many people were sick. Alan did not throw up…
The ferry was terribly late because of the weather. We decided to spend the night in Picton as we arrived after 7pm.
Wed. 28th, 2009
The warf in Wellington is beautiful. You are walking on the warf made of pilings in many places. There is poetry scattered around the warf for walkers to discover. Some is chiseled in rock and some is metal letters on the actual warf. It was really nice to come across a piece of interesting poetry. We found about seven of the twenty-two poems. Also there is another sculpture by lyle. We were not there in time to catch it in motion.
At Pier 11 there is a quilt show we stop in at. What a beautiful display. Maybe my ticket on the quilt will win!!
The Ta Papa Museum is magnificent.
Outside there is a bush walk which covers some of the local flora, fauna and rock formations observed in New Zealand. It leads to inside where we are viewing the display for the Colossal Squid. I had two favourite parts. Quite amazing. This is unlike anything we have seen before. It started back in 2007 when a fishing vessel in the Antarctic Ocean came across a Colossal Squid in one of its nets. As the squid was obviously not going to survive, it was donated to the Ta Papa museum. The next chore was to get it on ice before it would start to decay.
Once the ship returned to New Zealand, scientists from all over the world were invited to attend the unveiling of this amazing creature. It weights over 400 kgs and is almost 4 metres long. It has long tentacles and they not only wrap themselves around you, but they also have little swivel claws that can stick into its catch holding it tight, till the big beak, the size of a large parrot, chews it up. We can actually see the plasticized squid and watch a video of the catch. This was very worthwhile.
Other areas are: the Maori wing, looking at their culture and history, flora, fauna and forests of New Zealand, a section on Gold and Silver, an art wing where we saw a piece of art unlike none we have seen before.
My second favourite part was the art display. In one room was the White cloud. It is a huge room using three sides for the display is called the white cloud room. On the walls are small white blocks the size of a 2X4 X6 long. These blocks cover the walls from head height to the ceiling in waves. On every block is a different NZ word or phrase. It is absolutely amazing. Depending on where you stand you can see some of the words, but not all at once. Very inspiring art work.
At dinner we talk to our NZ friend, Clint, about New Zealand and Canada. He even wants to see some of our pictures, so we oblige him. In our case we have a bit of Maple syrup left so we pass one on to Clint for his children. I hope he enjoys it. He is very interested in construction in Canada and was pleased to see the pictures of our kitchen.
Further along we stop to pick up passengers who were dropped off in the morning and hiked through the Queen Charlotte Trails for the day. The boat is now filled and the tour back is packed with people. The boat docks at 18:00hrs back in Picton.
Tonight we are eating out. Most of the restaurants are closed on the main street. Alan had seen a sign at the local ROA, like the legion in Canada, and they were advertising a roast dinner. We head in that direction and end up meeting a couple from the boat trip. The four of us had a great dinner of roast potatoes, just like my Mum’s, roast chicken or pork, pumpkin (squash), peas and gravy for about $8 Canadian. The other couple is Australian and we have a great yarn. They often fly to NZ for holidays as it is a cheap flight. There was a live band that was quite good that played during dinner and into the evening. We had a very nice dinner.
Friday Oct 30th, 2009
Today we have our flat whites at the Dog and Frog Café. We spend the morning exploring the town. It is quite nice.
You can ride on the mail boat to the Queen Charlotte Islands and the coast and it is about a six hour ride on Saturday. We book it!
A local lady recommended the hikes around the harbour and above the town. The Tirohanga Track is quite close to our lodgings. It is quite an uphill treck for 45 minutes. Most of the trail is about a foot and a half wide with sheer drops. As we climb upwards the path forms switch backs to reach the summit. It was a grueling walk upwards…my muscles were complaining. I think Alan’s were too! After almost one hour we have reached the summit and it is worth it. The top was very cool and misty. It felt like rain was on its way. The surroundings were beautiful as you could look over the top in both directions.
Tonight we are eating pan browned kumera, a stir fry of onions and silverbeet – we call it swish chard and fresh New Zealand steaks. They call them Scotch Steaks and we call them rib eye. It was a great dinner. We met a young couple from Calgary, Scott and Christine. Scott works for the Calgary Stampede, and Christine is working as a technical writer. They are travelling from Christchurch to the North Island where they are going to retrace some or our steps.
Thursday 29th October 2009
We took the ferry from Wellington to Picton today. The ferry is a bit bigger than the Manotoulin Ferry. Our tickets were printed wrong, so we were there for the morning ferry but couldn’t get on until the afternoon. We had terrific southern winds that were almost at the force of Tuesday’s winds. I knew that I would not enjoy a three hour ferry ride in this weather. I purchased “sealegs” for motion sickness and they seemed to work. The ferry was going up and down with such ferocity waves of sea water were splashing the upper decks and windows. I was fine, until I stopped knitting, then I was not well. At least the feelings of sea sickness only lasted a short while. Since the weather was extreme, they asked all passengers to remain seated. Stewards came around with ice, bags and face cloths for the passengers. They had people with shop vacs cleaning promptly where needed. They also had people to help those in distress as many people were sick. Alan did not throw up…
The ferry was terribly late because of the weather. We decided to spend the night in Picton as we arrived after 7pm.
Wed. 28th, 2009
The warf in Wellington is beautiful. You are walking on the warf made of pilings in many places. There is poetry scattered around the warf for walkers to discover. Some is chiseled in rock and some is metal letters on the actual warf. It was really nice to come across a piece of interesting poetry. We found about seven of the twenty-two poems. Also there is another sculpture by lyle. We were not there in time to catch it in motion.
At Pier 11 there is a quilt show we stop in at. What a beautiful display. Maybe my ticket on the quilt will win!!
The Ta Papa Museum is magnificent.
Outside there is a bush walk which covers some of the local flora, fauna and rock formations observed in New Zealand. It leads to inside where we are viewing the display for the Colossal Squid. I had two favourite parts. Quite amazing. This is unlike anything we have seen before. It started back in 2007 when a fishing vessel in the Antarctic Ocean came across a Colossal Squid in one of its nets. As the squid was obviously not going to survive, it was donated to the Ta Papa museum. The next chore was to get it on ice before it would start to decay.
Once the ship returned to New Zealand, scientists from all over the world were invited to attend the unveiling of this amazing creature. It weights over 400 kgs and is almost 4 metres long. It has long tentacles and they not only wrap themselves around you, but they also have little swivel claws that can stick into its catch holding it tight, till the big beak, the size of a large parrot, chews it up. We can actually see the plasticized squid and watch a video of the catch. This was very worthwhile.
Other areas are: the Maori wing, looking at their culture and history, flora, fauna and forests of New Zealand, a section on Gold and Silver, an art wing where we saw a piece of art unlike none we have seen before.
My second favourite part was the art display. In one room was the White cloud. It is a huge room using three sides for the display is called the white cloud room. On the walls are small white blocks the size of a 2X4 X6 long. These blocks cover the walls from head height to the ceiling in waves. On every block is a different NZ word or phrase. It is absolutely amazing. Depending on where you stand you can see some of the words, but not all at once. Very inspiring art work.
At dinner we talk to our NZ friend, Clint, about New Zealand and Canada. He even wants to see some of our pictures, so we oblige him. In our case we have a bit of Maple syrup left so we pass one on to Clint for his children. I hope he enjoys it. He is very interested in construction in Canada and was pleased to see the pictures of our kitchen.
