We woke up early to make the ferry. It was a good thing we left the camp while most everyone else was still asleep because the dome was completely flat! Sorry to all the kids who looked forward to jumping on the dome today. we are starting a diet today! As we were waiting to drive on the ferry we were observing our fellow ferry goers. Most looked normal, saw a few travelers such as ourselves, a tricked our Mitchubishi Endevor with all the bell's and whistles. This mitsubishi had Burton stickers everywhere and the first personalized plates we have seen here "oldirty" Nice! The driver looked like he could have been from Portland super fancy gear/ride but with dreadlocks'. While dreads was trying to be cool there were Kiwi's on our left who were pounding beers. Mind you it's 7am! These were not young people, but older men, we gave them a good look and will try to avoid them on the road!
The ferry is very nice. Our trip was 3.5 hr but seemed to cruse right along. With about an hour to go you could start seeing the big mountains of the South Island. And I saw a twinkle in Paul's eye! My sweetheart loves his mountains! Getting close to port there was a whole school of dolphins surfacing about 30 feet off the boat and we ran through several huge jelly fish pods with thousands of the things visible in the clear blue green water. We arrived right on time to clear blue sky in Picton.
Picton
Jelly's
Picton is a small town built right around the harbor. We found the I site, got some info then REALLY eager to get out in the sunshine, set off on a hike right out of down town along the bay called Snout track. As we were walking to the start of the hike we had to dodge about 50 7-10 year old boys and girls all getting their sail boats ready at the Picton Yacht club. We started the hike and were walking through the same lush forest as the north island with incredible views of the bays and islands. We stopped for lunch at Queen Charlotte's lookout and ended up hanging out for about an hour just soaking in the rays. Heading back we all the sudden noticed that all the little kids we had seen a couple of hours earlier were now about even with us out the arm all racing in their little boats around an island and they were cruising! We saw a couple flip their boats, the safety rafts with the coaches or race officials out there had their hands full righting boats and fishing out wet kids, it was a great show!
Lunch on Snout Track
We stayed the night as Aussie bay. A small DOC right on the water. Again we had the place to ourselves. We watched the sun set while drinking wine and eating dinner. We a duck soap opera play our before our eyes. Shabree named the ducks, and one male had two lady friends! Paul thought he was a pimp but I think he bit off more than he could chew. We had a lot of fun with the ducks! We must not be around that many people!
Aussie Bay Campground
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