Blog Day 225 Friday 16th December 2011

Picton

Today we are back on the stray bus at around 8.45 and making our way north to the town of Picton. Not exactly a stop we would have chosen to make but we didn't really have much of a choice in the matter.

On the way we pull over at the Ohau Point Seal Colony. Here the seals can be seen on the rocks right next to the road. Our stop lasts for around 10 minutes and allows us to get some great photos.

Picton is where you catch the ferry from to Wellington on the North Island. Our bus is booked onto that ferry however we aren't. We are doing a loop of the South Island before heading north and our connecting bus doesn't leave here until 11.45 tomorrow. So the long and short of it is we are stranded here for the evening.

Having said that the scenery here (like most of New Zealand) is quite stunning. A small-secluded bay surrounded by mountains. Before we go walking some lunch is in order. We find a lovely little restaurant on the corner of town over looking the bay. What follows is quite possibly the best pizza that we have had in the 7 months that we've been away. We were good and shared one pizza but we could have quite happily devoured one each.

After lunch we have a slow stroll around the town. I say a slow stroll because if we had walked fast we would have covered it in around 5 minutes.

Our wander around the town takes us down to a memorial area, then over a bridge an up to a walking track that hugs the waterline. We have all good intentions of walking the track, when we bump into a lovely kiwi lady out walking her dog. After chatting to her for about 20 minutes about where we are going and where we have been, she tells us that the track up ahead is in a bit of a state after all the rain over the past few days. She takes one look at Dan's flip-flops and wishes us good luck. Luck never came into it though as we turned around and made our way back to the hostel.

The rest of the evening was spent watching a few movies and munching on popcorn.