Nearly at Journeys End

Leaving Nelson today for the drive to Picton and the ferry tomorrow.   A distant view of one of the Navy Patrol vessels just entering Port as we leave.  

  The road takes a good few twists and turns as it climbs out of Nelson and over the Richmond Range.   The hills seem endless but finally we descend into the Rai Valley and on towards Picton.   The road signs gave us an overall mileage of 139km but our GPS was about 30km less so we decided to follow that.   It turned us off into Queen Charlotte Drive for a lovely scenic drive along the side of Queen Charlotte sound.   It was very narrow in places and the winding road made the journey hard work.   It would be a lovely trip just in a car but I probably wouldn’t do it again with the caravan on the back.

Arriving finally at Picton we stopped for a quick photo at the lookout and watched the Bluebridge ferry arriving while the Interislander was preparing to leave.

The Trans Coastal was ready to leave (another train trip we would like to do) so we watched that, bought some lunch and had a look around Picton (that didn’t take long) – most of it was shut !

Trans Coastal

The Picton War Memorial

We are staying at a motor camp for our last night in the South Island just up the road from the terminal.   We are leaving on the Kaitaki tomorrow at 1:05 and should be home by 5pm.