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| Marlborough Sound |
In 2010 we stayed about 10 minutes down the main road at Koromiko Homestead for three nights but were distracted by all the fine wines in Marlborough wine country near Blenheim. Pat and Ian from our B & B encouraged us to come back again to spend time doing some walks in the Picton area and on the Queen Charlotte Track so here we are, ready to give Picton another chance. Any way we loved staying at their lovely home where Pat loves to share all the best local produce, hazelnuts, honey, olive oil, chocolate, and beautiful toiletries with her guests. We take over a wing of their house complete with bedroom, lounge, kitchen and dining room. Pat is a great cook too so a return visit is no hardship. And this trip Pat and Ian gave us books, maps and DVDs of the area to convince us that we would not regret decision to return.
Today I revamped my opinion of Picton entirely. We began by taking a 2 hour walk toward The Snout, a headland probably named by the Maori for its resemblance to a large pink round worm that could reach a length of up to 30 cm. They considered this worm a great delicacy. We meandered up and down, watched the ferry arrive and back into a berth and ended up at Queen Charlotte View where we ate our lunch in the sunshine. According to Wikipedia the Marlborough Sounds are a network of sea-drowned valleys caused by land subsidence and rising sea levels. We returned to the town via the lower track that circles Bob’s Bay and ended up at the local yacht club where two young friendly “yachties” told us where to buy the best fresh fish. Before doing so, we stopped at The Adventure Centre on the foreshore for their Ozone flat whites and we informed the owners that their version is potentially the best in the country – we are still conducting our survey. They were so friendly that if the weather clears, we may book a half day kayaking trip with them. They promise they’ll take good care of us inexperienced Canadians who don’t like boats.
Kiwi Humour
Picton Loo
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| The Adventure Centre Flat Whites |
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| Amusing Coffee Table The Adventure Centre |
We thoroughly enjoy the Kiwi sense of humour, it never fails to lighten our days, and Picton was chock full of superlative examples starting with their public loos. I’ve commented in previous blogs about exemplary public loos in NZ, one on the North Island in Matakana and the Hundertwasser loo in Kawakawa. I can’t imagine there could be another community on the South Island that has put so much effort into their public conveniences. I call them the musical loos, they actually talk to you and play music while you are enthroned (so to speak )and according to a local, someone comes to clean them five times a day. I checked You Tube and sure enough some obliging North Americans, obviously as impressed as I am, already posted a film so I include the link so you can be incredulous too. The coffee shop had some great signs about coffee that lured us to buy coffeee there as did the local Irish pub that build employees as "drinking consultants".
We found a great jewelry store in town, Brereton’s, to fix the safety chain on my watch and talked at length with a very nice lady about the Christchurch earthquake. We were just on our way to see an excellent documentary at the Picton Cinema on the subject entitled When A City Falls. We attended the 4:00 p.m. screening and since we were the only ones in the cinema, the technicians started the film fifteen minutes early for us. Can you imagine that? Only in NZ! On a more serious note, see the film if you can and you too will admire the citizens of this country and their amazing ability to pull together and cope with disaster. The people of Christchurch have experienced over 7600 aftershocks since the first major quake in Sept. 2010! We salute them and all the people who rushed to their aid.
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