Picton

On Tuesday, our excursion was in and around the town of Picton, New Zealand. Now if you look at a map, you'll see that Picton is at the northern tip of the South Island of New Zealand. If you recall, a couple of days ago, we were at Wellington, which is at the southern tip of the North Island. To get from Wellington to Picton, all you have to do is cross the Cook Strait - the waterway that divides the North Island from the South Island - and travel west a short distance. But instead we traveled up the east coast of the North Island to Napier. Then after leaving Napier we traveled south, back down along the coast of the North Island right past Wellington and over to Picton. We were wondering why we didn't just go from Wellington to Picton, and then on to Napier and points north from there.

We had a lively discussion about that at the dinner table last night. Ricky, Joe, and I sat with Frankie, Donna, and Jessie from the Ageless Adventures group. Our speculation on why the cruise ship took the roundabout way to get from Wellington to Picton (through Napier) yielded many guesses. Maybe port availability was a problem, with other cruise ships perhaps docking at Picton on that specific date. Maybe Celebrity wanted to fill the advertised 12 days of cruising by giving us an extra "day at sea" which would be incurred by this particular route. But in the end, we came up with the most believable explanation. In order to comply with local gambling laws, the casino on the cruise ship cannot remain open unless the cruise ship is outside of the country's jurisdiction, which is 12 nautical miles. That means that if we cruised from Wellington to Picton, the casino would not have been able to open. But by going from Wellington to Napier and then Napier back to Picton, the cruise ship would have been outside the jurisdiction of New Zealand and in international waters, and therefore would allow for more open hours of the casino. Apparently it's a profit motive☺

Our tour today took us through the charming, seaside town of Picton and then out to the surrounding Marlborough region. Picton is very small, with a population of 5000, so when cruise ships are in town the population almost doubles. Our bus driver/tour guide's name was Martyn. We knew Martyn was going to be an entertaining guide when he started off by telling us he had some stories for us, and then said "I never let the truth get in the way of a good story." 

Picton

Martyn

Picton has a vibrant waterfront and is known as the Gateway to the South Island. The town was designed in England and was devised for flat land. However, Picton is surrounded by hills. Therefore if you use google maps, the route may take you to the end of a cliff, or have you make a right turn, into a hillside. The streets of the town are in the shape of the Union Jack, the national flag of the United Kingdom. 

On our drive through Picton, we noticed not a Dollar Store, but a Two Dollar Store. I guess inflation has hit Picton. Also, the price of gas was roughly $10.14 per gallon (translated to dollars per gallon from liters). This is actually on the lower end of what we've been seeing around New Zealand. Joe said the highest he's seen is equivalent to $11.32 per gallon. Of course, these are New Zealand dollars (or Kiwis), so after the conversion to US dollars, it would be slightly over half that ($5.58 and $6.23, respectively), still expensive.

Picton is considered to be the wine growing capital of New Zealand. Apparently the climate here is the best climate in the country and perfect for growing grapes. The specialty in this area is Sauvignon Blanc. 

After leaving Picton, we drove through the Marlborough region consisting of the town of Koromiko and the Wairau Valley. We drove through the city of Blenheim, a very prolific wine producing area, and passed many vineyards. Some vineyards had a single rosebush at the end of each row of trees. The reason for the rose bushes, according to Martyn, is that roses suffer from the same blights as the grape-growing vines, so the owner just has to walk down the end of each row and check the rose bushes to see if any of his vines in that row are affected. With better technology the vineyards are now using drones instead of rose bushes. With the use of a drone, the entire vineyard can be checked for blight in 20 minutes.

In the Marlborough area there is a lot of timber from the heavily wooded hills. Timber grows quicker here than anywhere else in the world because of the perfect climate. According to Martyn the logs are exported to Asia and then come back as chopsticks. One of Martyn's "stories".

Future chopsticks?

As you recall, we visited a lot of fiords, or sounds, on the west coast of New Zealand. Martyn told us what the difference is between a fiord and a sound. The fiords are formed by glaciers, where the sounds are formed by movements of the earth, particularly earthquakes.

Martyn told us that the only land-based mammal in all of New Zealand are bats (not counting us tourists, of course!). 

Near the town of Blenheim, we stopped at Pollard Park and strolled through the beautiful grounds. 

After leaving Pollard Park, we drove to an area called The Vines Village shopping center. We strolled around the boutique shops and cafes, and enjoyed some beautiful views of the mountains situated behind the shopping area.

The small towns that we drove through are all 27 kms (approximately 16.8 miles) apart. The reason, according to Martyn, is because that's how far a horse could travel in one day.

Note: Tomorrow (Wednesday) is a "day at sea", so unless something really exciting happens, I probably won't blog tomorrow. The next day, Thursday, we have an all day excursion. Since we disembark on Friday, we'll likely spend Thursday evening packing. Then Friday is an all day travel day. So I probably won't get a chance to write the next entry for the blog, covering our last excursion, until Saturday, after we arrive back in Atlanta.