Picton

Before leaving Nelson, we had a lovely time (and brunch) with Dave's niece and her family, then left The Honest Lawyer to travel to Picton. And here's where we spent our last couple of nights in the South Island. Picton's a pretty little town—the gateway to the South Island for those who travel across by ferry from the North Island.

It was a stunning day when we arrived and walked down to the beach to take a look around.

I gave Lucy's eyebrows a bit of a trim later this day—it seemed as though she could barely see me.

There were the ever present ducks and seagulls, but the sun shining on the beautiful colours of this particular pair of Paradise ducks caught my eye.

Walking back to the rig, we took a detour through a dog park so that Lucy could have a bit of a run off lead. Then walking down the street, came across this beauty parked in someone's front section.

The next day, we went for a drive out around the Queen Charlotte Drive. We'd been warned not to bring the rig over that road (which looked like a short cut from Nelson) as it was quite narrow in places with sharp corners. However, it was worth a road trip. As we started out, we pulled into a lookout that overlooked the Picton Harbour.

Here's where the ferries come in—both the Bluebridge and the Interislander.

We were fortunate enough to be there at the right time to see the Interislander as it was leaving port. There are three Interislander ferries. This is the Aratere. We're sailing across on the Kaitaki tomorrow.

Check out the next blog post for photos of our trip along Queen Charlotte Drive and out to Portage. I read somewhere a description of this road: "like cruising the Marlborough Sounds without a boat."

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North of Queenstown

Travelling up the eastern side of Lake Wakatipu, we spotted the Earnslaw (above) on it's way back to Queenstown from Walter Peak High Country Farm. The TSS Earnslaw is a 1912 Edwardian vintage twin-screwed steamer and makes this trip several times a day, carrying tourists back and forth. The Earnslaw has been a Queenstown icon for as long as I can remember.

Further along, we stopped at Wilson Bay. It was a rather damp day with plenty of low cloud hanging over the mountains.

On the eastern side of the road, more snow-capped hills and mountains.

Pigeon Island is the largest island in Lake Wakatipu. It's in the northern part of the lake.

Glenorchy

This is as far north as we are going today. Further on are the Routeburn Track (one of NZ's great walks), Paradise, and Diamond Lake.

More photos on the way back to Queenstown.

This is looking out over Bob's Cove. There is a 20-minute walk around the edge of the cove to a pier. There are other options and longer walks, but given the weather, we chose the shorter walk. I always enjoy the bush with so many different varieties of trees and plenty of bird life. Amongst those birds we heard/saw here today were a keruru (wood pigeon), fantails, bellbirds and tuis.

This is an old limestone mortar kiln, a reminder of the cove's once flourishing lime industry. A sign near the site tells us that although lime mortar is now seldom used, it still holds together some of the district's oldest buildings such as Queenstown's original council, court and library buildings. It was also used for street curbing, lintels and doorsteps.

Half way down the side of the kiln is an opening. Lucy went in the front opening at the bottom, and when she saw me half way up, decided she would come join me. But no, it was too high for her!

The top of the kiln.

The pier goes out to the deeper water, passing over the pale yellow grey limestone outcrops.

Bellbird

There are these small signs along the way identifying some of the trees, which are great. But not nearly enough to educate me and often it's unclear which tree they are referring to. Possibly just a testimony to the huge gap in my knowledge of NZ native trees as they do have a diagram as well.

Pretty fungi.

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