One of the most picturesque places we visited on our trip was Picton, New Zealand. This little seaport town is located near the head of the Queen Charlotte Sound and has less than 5,000 residents. The population swells dramatically when the cruise ships sail into port. Much of the town’s ‘industry’ is based on tourism, so there are a number of businesses whose livelihood depends on the regular influx of tourist dollars. Winter was approaching when we visited, so our was one of the last cruise ships for the season. Nevertheless, we had a gorgeous day for a walk around the harbor with our British tour guide who worked for a Canadian tour company in this small New Zealand town!
Want to see other stops on our journey? Here’s a link where you can find all the entries in our travel journal.
More photos from Picton New Zealand
Picton is a gorgeous little village of only 4,000 people, but it has a lot of boats!
It looks like this little town has almost as many boats as houses.
The harbor at Picton has a good sealife population, so these waters are clear several feet down.
The ocean can become very dramatic down here when there's a storm coming. Swells reached about 9 feet at one point.
Getting ready for the seaport walk. Let's go!
The blue skies lasted most of the day, which was unusual. The flat water is supposed to be normal.
Boats in the harbor at Picton, where tourism is big business
These guys play to benefit the Blenheim Orphanage. They drew a nice little crowd.
Here we are, living the life in Picton...at least until we have to be back on the Noordam.
Lots and lots of islands, peninsulas, and fjords in this part of the world.
These little cluster of sailboats was just out in the bay waiting for their owners.
The California pine was brought to New Zealand years ago. It now is farmed as an export to Japan, where it will be turned into furniture, which will go to...the US (amongst other places).
The arch is the entrance to the park from the quaint downtown.
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