picton

Location: Picton

Baskets Left: 3

the quest to get rid of these ubber important artifact flax baskets (the containers maori peoples mystic knowledge!) goes on.

i still haven't heard from my boss ms. rhonwyn, and am still in the dark on a few things. i still haven't even seen any signs of whiro the maori god of darkness.

finally it feels like at least progress wise i've made headway (though i still haven't gotten rid of any of the baskets... i did come CLOSE a few days ago). i've covered all my stops on the south island!

meaning i've been to half of new zealand... which in and of itself is kind of a big deal!


the end of the south island is a town called picton. its not a huge place, and its spread out funny so you'd think it's even smaller than it is.

i however had lots of time to explore it as it was a national holiday called ANZAC day and everything was closed. ANZAC day is kinda like remembrance day back in canada, but it is for remembering the sacrifices of the men of the Australian New Zealand Army Corp.

once everything opened tomorrow the plan was to hit the museums in town, and if i had time the aquarium, then hop onto the ferry to the north island.

speaking of the ferry it was about the only thing open today.

the whole town was kinda built around the ferry. its the main emphasis of the harbour, and all of town leads you to said harbour.

wandering around a shut down town is kinda boring.

though a few things are both free and never stopping. like fountains!

it wasn't anything too fancy. in fact as fountains go this is pretty average, but it killed a good 30 minutes...

the coolest thing i found in town that i could do was head into the civilian harbour. you got to walk over a huge as walk way which was fun.

from up here i could see most of the waterfront. there were a lot of boats. i hadn't seen this many boats since vancouver!

new zealanders seem to owe less boats than other places i'd been in north america. in NA if there's water there's bound to be tons of boats... there are boats down here, but picton is the only place i've seen this many (non professional fishing) boats in one place or concentration.

my favourite of all the boats i saw was this one. coolest name/picture combo i've ever seen on a boat... cutest too.

the walkway itself was kinda fun. i mean look how big and curvy it is when you're standing on it!

one of the neatest restaurants in town had to be the echo. this is one of the oldest surviving ships used to transport people and goods to new zealand left. now its on dry land, and living out the rest of its days as a restaurant.

was neat to get that close to a real ship, and you know. not get wet...

i came across the local regimental club in my exploring. the place was packed for ANZAC services. i didn't want to interrupt or intrude on the event so i just checked out the old artillery gun they had out front.

it wasn't much i grant you people of the web wide world, but it was my little way of paying respect to those who were in those awful wars... sure won't want this thing shooting at me!!!

as i typically do i checked out the beach. this time i got one of my toe claws snagged on a rock which flipped over...

on the underside i found the most amazing thing...

a tiny sea slug!

i'm used to all sorts of invertebrates, but they almost always have a shell or are a worm. this a crawling moving disc of sliminess.

way too cool!

things were sooooo boring that i even started paying attention to the signage in town...

which turned out to be worth it...

including one of my favourite words for getting things done... with gusto! i always say...

my faourite sign had to be this one though!

evolve... nuff said.

into what i wonder?

i figured maybe i'd head back to the hotel and watch some TV to kill the rest of the day...

i should have guessed, i wasn't the only one heading to my hotel though...

to be continued...