We never meant to stay in Picton but it seemed like a good mid-way point between Nelson and Blenheim (Marlborough). Oh wait a minute yes, I did plan on staying in Picton for two reasons. 1) Queen Charlotte Sound 2) Mussels! Technically Havelock is the HOME OF GREENSHELL MUSSELS and we stopped there, at Mills Bay for a snack on the way. One of the best dishes was broiled mussels with a ton of butter and breadcrumbs. We kept saying we were going to buy mussels in the store and make them as my sister-in-law was carrying around a stick of butter throughout each city.
We arrived at our apartment and couldn't believe our eyes. We knew there was an upstairs loft & kitchen but we didn't know there'd be a huge (+ I mean huge) balcony overlooking Queen Charlotte Sound. No need to go out and eat if we could cook in this luxurious apartment but after 30 minutes on the windy balcony we gave up and ate in the kitchen.
We threw our bags down and ran across the street to the Greenshell Mussel boat tour. God was it beautiful, a 3 hour tour. We saw how the mussels are harvested ( on ropes vertically) and got to eat some fresh mussels (learned the difference between male and female--females are the paler ones, now I know) + salmon. Tons of jellyfish in the water but they were harmless (so they say).
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| View from our Balcony! |
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| Read The Women on this trip & loved it! Along with the Marlborough Sea salt potato chips |
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| A lesson in mussels along with Framingham Sauv Blanc |
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| Sheeeesh could we be happier? |
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| Jellyfish |
It was windy on the deck but of course that's where the best view is. We met two young ladies, one from Auckland, one from Chicago and I couldn't help but notice all the mosquito bites on the Chicago girl's leg. Poor girl. We were also swamped by sand flys in Te Anu & Queenstown so we could empathize with her.
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| Check out our huge balcony, taken by by brother/S-I-L on the bridge across the way, leading to the hike |
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| We saw a cormorant dive and catch/swallow a fish |
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| Mussel farm harvest |
Marlborough Sound is comprised of Queen Charlotte Sound, Pelorus Sound + Kenepuru Sound. I'd read about the famous walking trail (they call them tracks) in Queen Charlotte Sound which was highly rated on Trip Advisor and "things to do". I really wanted to bike the Queen Charlotte Sound Track but when I called a bike company they said it was really for advanced bikers. I was bummed about that and wondered if we should still go to Picton--you still had to take a boat to Queen Charlotte Sound from Picton. They sent me a bike map for Picton itself and I decided it was worth a two night stay as we planned the kayak tour on day 2 [& you know how that went]. We really enjoyed Picton and it was only a half an hour drive to our next destination Blenheim.
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