Activity Summary
Wednesday 28th December - Day 118
Tirohanga track & hilltop viewpoint
Bay view lunch
Snout track to Queen Charlotte viewpoint
Thursday 29th December - Day 119
Marlborough Sounds wildlife boat tour
Motuara Island walk
Grove arm / Momorangi bay swim
Friday 30th December - Day 120
Cullen point track & lookout
Pelorus bridge walk
Te Hoiere river swim
Green shell mussels in Havelock - The Captain's daughter
Saturday 31st December - Day 121
Marlborough wine tour
Framingham Wines
Forest Wines
Cloudy Bay
Rock Ferry
Nicola enjoys a bottle of wine!
NYE “party”
Giant manta ray in the bay
Sunday 1st January - Day 122
Hunting for manta rays in Ngakuta bay & Picton
Drive to Nelson National Park
Summary
Picton / Marlborough sounds
Picton as a place is pretty small but is a nice town with some nice walks around it.
The sounds however are stunning. With our boat tour we felt like we saw as much as was possible in the time we were there and it was immense.
Blenheim / Renwick
Wine country with some shopping. Great for Luke but little else there.
Accommodation
Picton - Momorangi DOC campsite
Number of nights - 4
Price per night per person - £13
The views from this campsite were immense; straight over to the rugged Queen Charlotte sound mountainsides and the sea on our doorstep to cool down from the day's heat with next to no attacks from biting things. Suited us perfectly.
The kitchen was decent and although we didn’t have a TV room to chill in in the evening the weather was pretty decent so we were able to spend our time actually enjoying the outdoors. Despite the slightly difficult drive into Picton due to road quality, we were pretty happy with this place.
Diary
We arrived at Picton harbour gone midnight which is way way past our bedtimes. But naturally Nicola fared worse and was shattered. Fortunately for Luke the drive off the ferry and to our hostel was the best part of 15 minutes, of which the majority was getting out of port.
Once at the hostel, we squeezed into the tiny hostel car park around the back and joined the queue of people that were checking in in the middle of the night. You would have thought the hostel would be well versed with check-ins and certainly want to rush through them at 1am but the lady was the most relaxed hippy we have ever encountered. She could not have gone slower if she tried and most of the stuff she said was complete gibberish. Nicola was fully in her ‘ I’m tired, raging and don’t give a fuck’ mood could not hide her death stare. Although the old lady would probably have taken this to be friendship eyes based on what she was smoking.
After about 20 minutes of waiting around with perplexed ferry goers, we finally got the go ahead and showed us our bunks. It must have been particularly annoying for those trying to sleep as the old lady rambled without any due care for her voice levels. But we were well prepared and were in bed within minutes.
The next morning we were able to appreciate how whacky the hostel was. The whole building & the rooms were all interconnected without any keys and had beds dotted around all over the place so it was a bit of a minefield to find anything and had a proper hippy backpacker vibe. Not Luke’s cup of tea but Nicola thought it was cool.
We had breakfast then took off into Picton town for a walk around, coffee and a sit down as the late night arrival with very loud hostel movements meant we weren’t particularly well rested. Nicola did have a very good cheap pie however so this greatly improved moods.
After garnering some energy we decided to walk some of the Tirohanga track. It was a fairly short uphill walk in the tree line to an opening at the top and a hilltop viewpoint over Picton. We had started to get into a routine of Luke running off at his desired pace to get his exercise in for the day while Nicola does the walk at her own pace that she is comfortable with (although her older boots were causing a lot of problems with blisters). This seems to work pretty well for us. As we pretty much spend all day every day together we really don’t have any game changing conversation left so these walks are not exactly game changing for ‘quality time’ by walking side by side. Helps to add some alone time in our days.
We spent some time at the top taking some pictures and talking to various people who had also walked up before turning tail and going back the way we came rather than carry on the track down the other side, favouring other walks with views.
Once back at the car we drove over to the Snout walking track, stopping off on the way for lunch with a view over the harbour and part of the Queen Charlotte sound.
We then spent the next few hours walking the snout track to the Queen Charlotte viewpoint before turning around as it was pretty warm and didn’t feel the added distance would add much given we were doing a boat tour the next day. But Luke was pretty excited about this and absolutely loved the views that the Marlborough sounds provided.
As to not leave it too late we drove over to the Momorangi DOC campsite which was about 20 minutes drive from Picton and along very windy & slow roads. Thankfully the weather stayed pretty nice the entire time so we didn’t have to contend with poor visibility / slippery roads.
The campsite view however was stunning (helped by glorious sunshine). We were set up slightly up the hill and had great views over the Momorangi bay and the lower part of the Queen Charlotte sound so we were pretty happy with where we would be based.
Our evenings in the campsite were again pretty structured; cook and then watch films in the tent.
The next day we had a fairly early start in order to drive over to Picton for a Marlborough Sounds wildlife boat tour. We arrived at the Eko tours office pretty much the last possible moment before everyone took off to the boat. Bit of squeaky bum time never hurt anyone.
The boat tour set off from the harbour and took off in the direction of Motuara island. We were all given pretty good binoculars and as we went along the sound stopped, slowed or went onto the deck to observe and get some information about the incredible wildlife knocking around. Some of the wildlife we saw:
King shags, of which only 700 exist in the world and we had a great view of a number of them
Saw a couple of Hector’s dolphins which are the smallest and rarest dolphin in the world
Seals, birds & little blue penguins
The main reason we had booked the tour was to see some of the sounds. The tour went down the Queen Charlotte sound in its entirety to Motuara island so we had amazing views of both sides of it in glorious sunshine. Was just a great boat trip & tour.
Once at the island we were briefed about what not to do or bring (basically food, bags and seeds/dirt) as it was an island sanctuary that had been cleared of invasive species (rats, rabbits, hedgehogs and possums being the most destructive species) in order to preserve the native species, of which is usually centred around kiwi’s and other birds that have been struggling to defend themselves. In typical fashion, a couple of frenchies completely ignored this and were walking around the island eating nut bars - absolute morons.
The walk itself up to the summit of the island was pretty easy and the tour guide stopped a number of times to talk about the island, history & various wildlife interests. We had a couple of pics at the top which had decent views of the end of the Queen Charlotte track & ship cove before heading back on the boat.
The journey back to Picton was a lot shorter as we were fortunate enough to see a lot of the wildlife on offer in the first leg so barely stopped along the way. The wind had however picked up so it was a fair amount choppier but not enough to push Nicola into her danger zone.
We had some lunch at the harbour before driving over to Karaka point for a viewpoint and a short walk. There wasn’t much to see apart from Allports island - of interest because apparently (according to Eko Tours) lives the only hybrid kiwi species in the world that are able to procreate, but there are only a couple of them and once they pass away so will the subspecies. Fun fact, if true.
With our day done in Picton we drove back to the campsite and spent the afternoon in the Momorangi bay swimming and relaxing.
We cooked dinner and Luke popped open the first bottle of his now glorious wine collection - his hand forced by the fact it was super hot in the tent and car and he was getting very concerned about it going bad quickly. We both had parts in coming up with an ingenious wine preservation technique for travellers; keeping the wine on the cooler ground of the tent porch with the reflective car windscreen cover acting as a heat buffer. Seems to work adequately well.
Initially we had planned to walk some of the Queen Charlotte track, but given the boat tour took us across the whole sound and gave us more than the views the hike would we decided this wasn’t a great plan (the whole hike is a multi dayer and we didn’t want to spend a fortune on water taxis to ship cove for a walk).
Our second plan then was to do a load of mini walks by driving along the track and beyond. However, multiple rock slips and road closures meant we couldn’t drive much past the start of the QC track so again we had to rethink our plans.
Third time lucky, and by complete fluke, we spent a bit of time in the morning looking at a detailed map of the area in the kitchen which gave us a pretty good overview of some shorter walks & viewpoints towards Havelock.
The first walk we did was the Cullen point track & lookout. It was a fairly decent walk with nice views but nothing groundbreaking given the last few days.
We carried on driving over to Pelorus bridge for a walk around the river and forest area around here. What we didn’t expect to find was an incredible spot for some river swimming. Sticking to our initial guns we did a bit of a walk around the area and had lunch at a spot by the river before Nicola excitedly called the walk early in order to strip off as quickly as she could.
Once at the Pelorus bridge we grabbed our water fun items and dry bag then jumped into the river by the bridge. The water was at a good level with a strong pull but overall had a quite gentle current down the river. Nicola was the first to let herself be free with the river spirits and floated away peacefully from her trials and tribulations - aka Luke.
Once she had made her way back upstream we both floated down together. The dry bag was a very good purchase for keeping our valuables close to us while doing water based activities without fear of losing everything of worth we own.
The spot was also pretty good for jumping off rocks into the river so after seeing some kids and young families do this we also decided to follow suit because we didn’t want to look weak. The screams down however may have hindered this macho facade.
Having spent a fair amount of time relaxing here in the sunshine, we got fairly hungry and Luke was very keen to try the famous green shell mussels in Havelock. The English tour guide from the day before had recommended The Captain's daughter as the place to go given the rustic UK pub vibe as well having decent food. Green shell mussels are aite; absolutely huge but are only as good as the broth and this wasn’t great here and the cost of the meal + a beer was insane. But happy we tried anyway.
Once back at the campsite we cooked, chilled and crashed out.
Have we really seen & experienced Marlborough without a wine tour of the region that exports most of the wine from New Zealand? Nicola said absolutely not of course, Luke must wine tour!
Luke was getting pretty good at selecting his wineries by now so there was very little stress or detailed planning required. Nicola needed to run off shopping in Blenheim however so once at the first stop on the tour at Framingham wines she shot off and left Luke to his own devices.
It was a glorious first stop however. The gardens were lovely, the sun was out and Luke had a nice little bean bag set up for his wine tasting. The hostess came out and poured him his wine and gave a little spiel about each before leaving him to enjoy in wonderful solitary peace. He ended up telling the hostess to slow down with the experience as he was having such a chill time.
Sauvignon Blanc 2022 - 8/10
Classic Riesling 2022 - 6/10
Chardonnay 2021 - 5/10
Montepulciano Rose 2022 - 4/10
Pinot Noir 2020 - 8/10
The beauty of wine tasting in Blenheim & Renwick is that it is a very short distance between them, where renting a bike is an alternative to a chauffeur. Luke’s next winery was down the road so he was able to walk without such a lift.
Forest Wines again greeted him with a lovely view & comfortable bean bag set up. He parked up in a spot that had some shade for when Nicola arrived and was served his wine tasting on a platter all at once this time around. Not his favourite method but it does allow for comparisons between them.
Rose 2022 - 4/10
Sauvignon Blanc 2022 - 6/10
Alborino 2022 - 8/10
Cenin Blanc 2022 - 5/10
Doctors Riesling 2021 - 8/10 *** 38g of sugar - both Luke & Nicola liked
Pinot Noir 2020 - 8/10
Petit Manseng - 9/10 *** the holy grail of wines as Nicola actually enjoyed it (70g of sugar though)
On finding a bottle of wine that Nicola actually enjoyed, Luke lost his shit and bought her her first adult bottle of vino to drink for enjoyment (rather than neck the wine mixed with peach schnapps like at her brother's wedding).
Before leaving we had a wonderfully tragic lunch meal in comparison to the poshos around us with their cheese platters, sitting on the boot of Chopper with bread, cucumber and dips.
The next winery was accidentally chosen as a very popular exporter of wine to the UK. The cellar door experience was run from the bar and Luke decided on the Sauvignon tasting experience on offer. This gave 3 wines for comparison and while not the best wine was a great experience all round and witnessed the difference in flavour based on age and picking method.
Sauvignon Blanc 2022 - 6/10 *** machine picked & decent
Sauvignon Blanc 2017 - 7/10 *** matured in bottle and slightly nicer, although not drastically so
Sauvignon Blanc Koko 2019 - 4/10 *** hand picked and aged in oak for a year; found too buttery & like chardonnay
Overall, Luke would not buy a bottle of Cloudy Bay in the UK. £28 from Sainsburys is a rip off.
Cloudy Bay at lunchtime was pure chaos. They were messing up orders, not knowing who was where and we were there just casually drinking wine and watching it all unfold. Pretty fun show. Afterwards we had a quick walk around up to the viewing platform of the barrels and then moved on.
The last cellar door was at Rock Ferry and was the absolute standout of the day, if not of all the days. The winery was a small one and certainly was not the most aesthetically pleasing but the hostess was incredibly nice and in having another party caused problems with paying and delaying Luke’s wine tasting experience they fed him so much more wine to say sorry.
Brut Rose 2022 - 5/10
Chardonnay 2022 - 9/10 *** Half concrete egg, half oak; not buttery at all and was actually delicious
Sauvignon Blanc 2022 - 9/10 *** longer in the bottle and was glorious
Gruner Veltliner - 7/10 *** surprisingly quaffable
Pinot Gris - 4/10
Pinot Gris skin on - 7/10 *** much nicer than pinot gris
Pinot Noir - 9/10
Riesling late harvest - 6/10 *** 100g of sugar, very nice in small quantities
Couldn’t rate the place higher.
Once done we went back to the campsite to prepare for a wild night of fun. Nicola busted out her bottle of Petit Manseng as we cooked, ate and socialised with some of the campsite regulars that had come every year for a long time.
As the evening went on we decided on a walk down the water's edge to see whether we could spot any manta rays. We got talking to a group of mid 20 year olds who were at the campsite for the new year but seemed to be seriously lacking in an alpha and directing the party for them. Probably should have informed them of the alpha badger competition - it may help them party harder. In chatting with them however we got to witness a massive metre plus manta ray swimming past the pier which was absolutely awesome.
We kind of walked back and talked with these guys for a while before everyone basically said they were going to bed so much to Nicola’s annoyance of not finding the party and much to Luke’s happiness of being able to go to bed we were tucked away just prior to midnight, only making it to the iconic time simply because Luke had set an alarm. So we sealed it with a kiss then passed out.
New years day and we didn’t feel any different seeing as we are living our best lives. Sorry not sorry.
We packed up and went on our way to the Nelson national park, first stopping at Ngakuta bay & Picton to try and look for more monster manta rays. Sadly we were unsuccessful so we carried on.
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