Day 18 Back to the North Island

The lofty mountains and the seas,
Being mountains, being seas,
Both exist and are real.
But frail as flowers are the lives of men,
Passing phantoms of this world.

– Reiko Chiba Hiroshige’s Tokaido in Prints and Poetry

7th February 2023

We woke up this morning to a warm but overcast day with some dark grey clouds skulking around the edges of the sky. We had a leisurely breakfast and prepared to leave the apartment by 10.00am. It was a lovely apartment and it would be a great place to spend several days but our schedule doesn’t permit that this trip. We are booked on the 2.15pm ferry back to Wellington so, regrettably, no time to tarry.

We had some time to kill before joining the queue to get on the ferry so we drove north east out of Picton along the bay, through Waikawa to Karaka Point and then back to Picton. The drive took about an hour and we saw some beautiful views of the mountains and the seas from the road.

We still had some time to look around town and get a coffee once we got back to Picton. It is a quirky little town with beautiful views of the docks, marinas and the sea. There is obviously a lively tourist trade going through the town because there are lots of coffee shops, restaurants and bars and some interesting shops.

It is notable how many real estate agencies there are in the town. Talking about real estate seems to be a national pastime in New Zealand and I’ve been told that is true of Australia too. There are, of course, houses across the whole spectrum in Picton, from very modest homes to high-end luxury houses. Some of the houses on elevated plots that you can catch a few glimpses of along the roads in and around Picton must have wonderful views of the sea and the surrounding countryside. Most of those kind of houses whose photographs are displayed in the estate agents’ windows are listed as Price by negotiation or Price available on enquiry but there are a few whose prices are listed which does give you a rough idea of their sale value and some of them cost multiple millions of NZ dollars to buy.

Right at the centre of the waterfront area in town is the Picton War Memorial that was built in 1925 to honor the 31 local residents of Picton and Queen Charlotte Sound who sacrificed their lives in the First World War. Nearly 10% of the country’s population – 100,000 men and women – served in that war from 1914 until 1918. By the end of that terrible war, 16,697 NZ soldiers had died and another 41,317 were wounded.

It was very soon time to check into the ferry boarding area and drive to the assigned line to await the ferry boarding. We went back on the Kaitaki which is the same ferry we came over to the South Island five days ago. What a lot we have seen in those five days!

The Premium Lounge on Level 7 of the ferry is very comfortable and serves a very nice buffet lunch with excellent vegetarian choices.

The weather cleared and we had some glorious views of the retreating land and the sea on the way back to Wellington.

The lovely ferry journey was over all too soon and in no time we were back at the Copthorne Hotel in Wellington, overlooking part of the city from one side of the hotel and a marina from the front. We will drive back up to Taupō tomorrow morning.