Pictures from Picton - March 6

Picton has a population of around 4,000. The population of our ship, including passengers and crew, is probably a little more than that. Picton lies at the end of a fjord in Queen Charlotte Sound at the tip of New Zealand's South Island. The fjord is not glacial - it was created by the movement of tectonic plates. Picton reminds me of a sunny Seward or Haines.

On the sail-in to Picton we passed a number of "holiday homes." The Kiwis often call them "cribs" or "benches." Most of them were fairly substantial houses.

There are few roads in the area, but plenty of boats, ferries, and water taxis.

Floatplanes buzz overhead from time to time.The port is. Busy place for shipments of lumber.

We boarded a boat directly from the ship to begin our shore excursion with Cougar Line. We sailed across Queen Charlotte Sound to Mistletoe Bay.

There is an eco-camp there, used to educate school children on environmental stewardship. The property is also available for rental by families, etc. on weekends and school holidays.

Mistletoe Bay is one of the access points for the Queen Charlotte Track, a 73 km trail that may be hiked in smaller segments. This is going to be our "bush walk." We were divided up into groups of 12 plus a guide.

Our guide, Cloe (not Chloe) reminded us of our kids. She majored in geology and environmental science and is guiding during the summers.

Cloe is showing us a "weta hotel." Wetas are large cricket-like insects.

One of the interesting things about this area is the effort being made to restore it to its natural condition. One hundred years ago, the region was used for sheep farming. It wasn't very successful, and it caused erosion. Now most of the farmland has been reforested and is owned or managed by a trust.

In earlier times attempts were made to develop a lumber industry and a number of species of trees from other countries were introduced "to see which ones would thrive." One kind of pine tree began to self-plant and, unfortunately, it produced a substance which was toxic to native species. Now they are marking each tree with a GPS. Crews go to the trees and inject a poison which kills the trees and their seeds. 

There is also a project underway to create a predator-free area so that the kiwi bird can be reintroduced. The predators would be possums (not spelled "opossum" like Americans spell it), bobcats, rats, and a few others. Originally there were no predators in New Zealand. Everything here was introduced by Homo sapiens.

After our hike we got back on the boat for tea and biscuits and sailed back across to Picton. We were dropped off in the town. There is an area about three blocks long and two blocks wide with cafes and shops. There is a little park by the water. A pipe and drum band was playing there. The sun was out and it was beautiful.

We had dinner at Sabatini's. The maitre d' was a little bit weird. After dinner we were supposed to see Monique Dehaney again. It turned out she was ill, so we saw a comedian/magician named Brian Manuel. His material was new (at least to us) and funny.