Picton

On our way to Picton from Nelson we stopped off at the tiny town of Havelock, which has an apparently fairly famous restaurant, well cafe really, called the Mussel Pot. We booked a table for a bit later and then headed across the road to the nice Scottish pub, the Clansman, but the dinner wasn`t anything amazing at all really.

Due to the stopover though, it was dark when we wanted to continue on towards Picton, so we didn`t bother taking the scenic Queen Charlotte route. But over dinner we`d met another diner who told us about a great restaurant down by the marina in Havelock, so the next day we drove back via the fantastically scenic mountain route and had a brilliant seafood chowder at the Slip Inn.

On the way back to Picton after lunch along the same route we stopped off at the best viewpoint, positioned the van so that the side door when opened faced the wide open sea view, and I could just lie back on the bed, sip a chilled beer and soak up the panoramic vista in front of me (while Sarah sat in the front reading her book). It was simple moments like that that were certainly one of the overall highlights of the whole New Zealand trip for me - having the freedom of time, and having our own van that we could stock up with food and beers, and then whenever an amazing view came along we could just park up, sit back and soak it all up for as long as we liked. And of course, New Zealand provided plenty of opportunities to do just that.

Anyway, we had a few days in Picton before our ferry trip across to the North island, so we just chilled out at the Sequoia Lodge Backpackers (with more free chocolate pudding, free decrepit bikes, a lovely roaring fire and an outdoor hot tub that I only used once). And then before we knew it it was time to get the ferry across to Wellington and meet up with Ray and Amanda.