Ok, as we aren’t the ones that wake up before everyone else, standing ready to disembark the boat at 7AM, so I guess we enjoyed Picton for about 6 or 7 hours. But boy did we enjoy that one! Picton is on the southern island of New Zealand. Weird fact about that is we had absolutely no clue why the ferry only took 3 hours to go from Wellington to Picton, yet it took us 11 hours, maybe the boat was too fat to fit in some of the passages. We’ll go with that one. 

Because of the storm we had to dock again on a commercial wharf and were brought to the city centre with shuttle buses. As soon as we opened up the curtains in the morning we knew this was going to be a good day, (for the girls; you know that feeling when you brush your mascara onto your lashes and they just curl as perfectly as they could, without chunks or sticking together, when that happens, you know it is going to be a good day!) The sun was shining, the sky was blue and the wharf we were docked was a log distribution point so the awesome smell of fresh wood accompanied the picture. 

After we were dropped of in the city centre and focused on finding ourselves a nice boat tour, as Picton is home to the Marlborough Sounds, we went to the Visitor Centre. Joke of the day apparently as I guess the staff wasn’t really updated on the fact that 5000 people were going to be dropped of for a day there, especially knowing that only 4000 people live here in Picton. The line was huge and no progress seemed to be made so the clever bunch that we are, we decided to go and check it out for ourselves. The lovely little beach town housed some cute bars and shops and within the first 30 minutes we had found ourselves a great 1,5 hour boat tour through the Sounds! 

We had ourselves a good spot on the roof terrace of the boat, so for views and tanning we were all set! (Ok, if it wasn’t for obnoxious tourists who can’t find themselves a good spot so they know nothing better than to come and stand in front of you, aaargh tourists!) The boat took us through the gorgeous Marlborough sounds and although every sound looks the same they’re still gorgeous, each and every one of them. Now the absolutely cool thing is that in these little bays people actually live, and not in some poor lodge you’re picturing now.. Those houses are 7 million mansions with their own pier and a boat or yacht (because hey even they have to go for groceries sometimes, just by boat), a pool and probably much much more! We would say yes to one of those houses any time! Maybe we should open an account for volunteer-sponsors 😉 The boat tour was simply stunning and we had achieved what we came for, good views and a tan! (Although the tan is with some imagination at first, you see, it’s what comes after the tomato skin that matters.)

Thanks to the amazing weather we could still spend some time on the outside pool deck while departing from this magical little place! Sailing away in such conditions is just perfect! I bet these pictures are proof of that. Picton, we’d love to see you again some time!