Apr 2, 2013 - End of Queen Charlotte Track

Today was the day we are walking out, it says it will take 8 hours to get to the finish and are ferry leaves at 330pm so to be sure we got up at 5am and left at 6am, the first two hours were the hardest because it was all uphill so it was a good call to leave earlier when it was cooler because later on it got really hot! We completed the walk in 6 hours so we had two hours to wait for the boat! be early is better then be late i guess, the boat was early then we went back to Picton, got a hostel and i had fish and chips for my dinner then we...

Mar 31, 2013 - Day 2 on Queen Charlotte Track

Day 2 on the track was mixed, the weather half the time horrible and half the time amazing but dad wasn't in the best of moods because his pack was hurting him, (I told him to man up!) It was a hard and long day it took 7 hours to do all the km to the campside but we got there! The bird in the picture is called a Weka and there were really really annoying! Woke us up at 2am each night and kept trying to take are food!

Mar 30, 2013 - Boat Trip to Start of Queen Charlotte Track/Day 1

Today we left Nelson bright and early to get a 2 hour bus journey to Picton, it was a interesting trip because the whole journey was through Marlborough which has lots of vineyard. We got to Picton and it seemed to be a nice seaside town which lots of fish and chips shop (All good!), to do the Queen Charlotte Track to have to get a boat trip to the start which means to have to get a boat down the Marlborough Sounds. The only boat we could get was at 130pm which was the mail boat, which dropped peoples post/shopping who lived on the...

Feb 8, 2013 - Wellington to Picton

We landed in Picton and were taken to the Sequoia Lodge. There's a huge Sequoia tree across the street from the lodge. Unfortunately they had given Llanos our room by mistake, and we had to kick her out. This was the first of several problems she had with rooms. More on that later.

Feb 1, 2013 - Picton, South Island

Today we took the ferry to the South Island, or rather it took us. Up at 4:45 a.m. to get to the ferry dock by 6:30. We have been in Wellington for one week and the weather has been sunny every day. I was hoping today would be sunny also so that I could search for pelagic (ocean-going) birds during the crossing. Well, it was sunny, but there was a freezing cold wind. I just about froze looking for birds and finally had to give up and enter the lounge of the ship. Pelagic birds live on the open ocean and seldom, if ever, fly over the...

Jan 27, 2013 - South Island here we come

Up really early today we had our breakfast delivered to our room as we were off to catch the ferry to Picton in the South Island. Our driver picked us up and delivered us to the Interislander ferry where we checked our luggage as if we were going on a plane Three hours later we arrived at Picton. The weather was hotter than the North island and we were looking forward to meeting Aunt Nova for lunch. Aunt Nova, a tiny lady, was waiting for us at the carousel where our luggage was being delivered. After hugs and tears we pIcked up our luggage...

Jan 21, 2013 - Day 11

Day 11 – Picton 21st January 2013 We tied up to the wharf at about 6am this morning at Shakespeare Bay. We went on a tour of the wineries and chocolate factory which was very good and we were given some terrific talks at each of the wineries. The last winery had a very funny vintner giving the talk. The tour bus driver then drove us back through Picton to give us an idea of the town (very small, but very pretty).

Nov 13, 2012 - Day 10 - Turangi to Feilding-Visit Manawatu Estuary; Ferry from Wellington to South Island

The day began looking for shorebirds in the Manawatu Estuary. From there we drove south, along the scenic Kapiti Coast, towards Wellington (capital of New Zealand). We stopped along the way to check for more waterfowl. From Wellington, we took the Interisland Ferry to the South Island, via the Cook Strait. The trip took three hours. We positioned ourselves on the upper deck and looked for open water seabirds.

Oct 19, 2012 - Picton and Queen Charlotte's track

Oct. 19, 2012 We are now in Picton. Actually we arrived yesterday via the Intercity Bus Service. The ride was noteworthy for the beautiful scenery. The hills just undulated in hues of green! Undulate really does not describe them, a paint brush would do so much better. It was a large hill with numerous others of varying sizes up close and personal to it; multiply that by ten sets of the same and you can, maybe, get a visual image. The other pertinent thing to note was the wind. Oh, my! Did it ever blow! We stopped in a small town,...

Apr 19, 2012 - Picton

Hello, After getting a good breakfast down we hit the road and headed for the ferry port of Picton. This is the last stop on the north island going directly to Wellington. Still it was a pretty port, much better than Dover or Harwich. For starters it has the beautiful Oxley Rock Hotel. Now someone has real taste. Pics soon. Captain Cook spent 101 days here during the early colonisation of NZ. Apparently he sailed around the whole of the north and south island before concluding the this was not the fabled "Great South Continent." In his day...

Feb 12, 2012 - Picton-by-the-sea

Originally we were going to spend 2 nights in Blenheim and 2 nights in Picton but we decided that with the festival going on and we thought that Picton would not be that exciting or much to do. Well the festival was great but so was Picton so we missed out a bit really. Luckily we got there early in the morning as its only 28km from the previous site. The weather was brilliant and so we parked up and walked into town, as it was Sunday we thought it would be a bit quiet, which it was but nicely so. The road took us through the marina and it...

Feb 7, 2012 - Diving - Mikhail Lermontov

We've the past five days in the Marlborough Sounds - very beautiful, but often obscured by rather low cloud. The weekend was a national holiday, so crowded in parts, but we managed to get off the beaten track (an hour's drive up a gravel track). We visited Havelock twice - Green Shell Mussel Capital of the World (twice). It also boasts a fantastic mussel restaurant - see photos - before and after eating the mussel platter for two. It was so good we went back the next day as well. We were really looking forward to diving the Mikhail...