Pretty in Picton

If the first few days on the South Island were about decadence, the next two were about enjoying some of the outdoor adventures this area has to offer. We booked with Marlborough Sounds Adventure Co for a two day trip out of Picton, a cute little seaside town where ferries land from Wellington and many adventure companies are located. Day One was super windy, so we took a large water taxi/cargo vessel from Picton to Portage for a 6 mile hike into our overnight accommodations at Lochmara Lodge along the Queen Charlotte Track. This is a popular 4 day trek, but where they dropped us off was at the Portage to Lochmara Lodge (if anyone wants to look it up on All Trails!) point. With 1400+ feet of elevation gain it was tiring, but not difficult and the views were absolutely stunning. Lots of interesting vegetation (my favorites were the Tree Ferns and the Rangiora aka bushman's toilet paper), birds (small and loud or big and quiet), as well as lots of cicadas/locusts. It was not all quiet on the NZ front!

Lochmara Lodge was so cool. Only accessible by boat or foot, it had a luxe summer camp feel with nice rooms and dining, but also trails, art walks, animals (sheep, cows, weka birds), and a beach area with SUP's and kayaks. The coolest thing was an area rife with glow worms that lit up like clockwork after the sun set.

Day two turned out to be a beautiful calm and partly cloudy day that was perfect for the Kayak Tour. Our guide (Hannah from BC) met us at the lodge with 3 tandem "sit in" kayaks and after a short bit of instruction, we headed out for a 10-mile trip around Queen Charlotte Sound and back to Picton. We had been provided lunch and stopped a few times for snacks and "tea". The water was an incredible color of clear but dark green. Hugging the shorelines, we saw lots of mussels (including the native green-lipped mussels), starfish, jellyfish, and eagle rays. We returned to Picton at about 4pm (so 6 hours) later, secured our luggage and headed to one of the many hotels catering to adventurers within a few minutes walk of the harbor. After a short "horizontal", we reconvened at the super cute Oxley Hotel for happy hour and then to our hotel's Chartroom for dinner that included the green-lipped mussels we had seen on our trip!Read more