Picturesque Picton

Curiously, today's location was the quietest, with the least enticing activities, but the longest port time. We docked at 9am, and had until 7pm to explore.
My prefferred activity for the day was Waipupu Wildlife Sanctuary. Only accessible by boat/jetty, ironically the trail for this location passed within about 200 metres of where our ship was docked. You could almost see and touch the trail from our cabin, but no access.
Too bad we couldnt get access to some of the timber here at this working port after the huge delays we experienced this year for our new home build.. After a short shuttle transfer, we were in the heart of Picton.
The harbour area here was really just as I remembered it eight years ago when a younger Nat and Kris couple drove in here on a South Island road trip. Only then, we shared the grassy lawn here with ducks, this time, we had a thousand cruise passengers for company... I know which I preferred. The ducks were in agreement.
I grabbed Nat and I some coffees and scouted for and secured ferry tickets to Waipupu. The whole family opted to follow. While waiting for our noon departure, we wandered the waterfront, main street, stopped for pies at a bakery and browsed and a small market.
The 5-10 minute ferry dropped us at Waipupu, a little after noon, giving us a couple hours to walk the hilly jungle island, with prams, which presented a small challenge. A few huffed and puffed here and there but we made it around without any major incident. There were dozens of penguin boxes you could peek inside, but we found all 10-15 empty and unoccupied. We didnt see many other birds, a couple here and there. The track was thick forest, offering nice panoramic views.
A couple hours later we were back in town via the ferry. Disembarking the ferry, the kid's lunch bag slipped out into the water.. but fortunately the ferry operator was able to fish it out.
With plenty of time we decided to amble along the shore accross to the aquarium.
Itd be hard to be positive about that experience. Nat and I avoided it on our visit 8 years ago, and it wasn't hard to see why. The $26 adult admission was way overpriced. The 3-4 rooms were dated, shabby, mouldy, in disrepair, containing a dead squid, couple lizards, turtles, rabbits (for some reason?? - possibly the least aquatic animal possible) and maybe 10 types of fish total. There were a couple big ones in the last tank and very cool porcupine fish.
That was enough for the day and we headed back to the ship via shuttle.
A nasty cold has dogged me from the start of this trip, and our entire group is basically sick now... there's talk of covid aboard and mask wearing has increased notably.
No show tonight, just an old movie in the theatre for some reason. Probably just as well as we all need rest and relaxation for our last day in New Zealand tomorrow.Read more