Picton, New Zealand

Saturday, March 2, 2019

After a quick voyage across the Cook Strait, the Amsterdam arrives in Picton! We’re only here for a few hours (8am to 1:30pm) so I dragged myself out of bed early (before 10am) to have some time to spend ashore.

Where am I?

So, what’s been happening?

Originally, I tried to schedule a Marlborough Valley vineyard tour for today. As it turned out, the amount of time given to us in port prevented any such tour. I guess that I’ll just have to enjoy those wonderful Kim Crawford wines having never been to the actual winery.

Still, the ship’s touring company was offering something that looked pleasant. It was a walking tour of Picton, with a guide who would tell us about the history and the economics of the area. The walk was schedule to last only two hours and cover about 1 mile. In the end, the tour was every bit of two hours and covered about 1.5 miles.

Although he was a little late arriving, our tour guide, Ray, was pretty cool. He really knew his stuff, although getting him to speak loud enough to hear about it was a problem, at times. Ray was an old retired navy man, and to hear him talk about life around the sea, you’d expect he had a peg leg, a pipe, and a waterproof bag of tobacco.

Ray shared with us some of the history of the area, which was very informative. One story that I found particularly interesting was that, in the time before the Māori’s arrived (and certainly well before the British settlers arrived) there were no mammals on the South Island. Instead, the island was well populated with many species of birds. The birds had no natural predators and so, over time, some lost their ability to fly. These now ground dwelling birds never took flight, and nested in trees, and seldom feared being eaten. One of those birds was the moa. At that time, New Zealand was home to the moa and it was the largest bird that ever lived.

After the Māori arrived, the moa became extinct rather quickly due to over hunting.

But, there were still lots of flightless birds left on the island including New Zealand’s precious kiwi. The kiwi is a flightless bird that nests and lays eggs on the ground. It is also the national symbol of New Zealand. Read on to see how this all fits in.

After the British arrived, they brought with them a variety of animals from home. This included dogs, cats, sheep, cattle, and rabbits. Over time, escaped rabbits began to breed like, well, like rabbits. Owing to the lack of predators on the island, the rabbit population soon soared out of control. Before too long, there were rabbits everywhere and they became worse than a nuisance, they became pests!

In an effort to control the rabbits it was decided to bring in some of their natural predators from home. These predators included weasels and stoats.

Well, the imported stoats set out to work as soon as they arrived. They are excellent hunters and killers. So did they take care of all of those pesky rabbits?

Nope.

From the perspective of the stoat, it seems, it’s much easier to raid bird’s nests on the ground and eat their eggs than it is to chase rabbits! It seems that, in New Zealand at least, eggs don’t run away as fast as rabbits do.

As a result of the stoat introductions, the kiwi (the national bird) almost went extinct. The thought of this happening is unbearable to the Kiwis. (The humans, not the birds, though I suspect the birds aren’t too keen on their own extinction, either.)

Continue to hold that thought.

On our walk around town we also got to hike just a little bit through a forest park near the yacht harbor in Picton.

Along the way we saw lots of stoat traps near our path and some lesser used paths as well. Ray, our guide, told us that residents in Picton (and some other towns on the South Island as well) have been asked to place these traps around their residential property, as well. Ray said the request is for at least every third residence to put in a trap.

Additionally, we were told that certain areas are being created that are “predator proof” and kiwis are being placed in these reserves to help them to boost their population once again. Making the reserve “predator proof” means not only tall fences, but also deep fences to keep the stoats from burrowing in.

Today, New Zealand is very restrictive about bringing animals into the country from abroad. It seems as though some lessons have been learned from their painful history.

Our walk continued around the harbor as we learned some of the history of the town. In the photo above, the left side shows a covered dry dock which houses the seventh oldest ship in the world (or so we are told.) Just a bit to the right in the photo, but farther in the distance, can be seen the Amsterdam.

Picton was once involved in whaling, acquiring 200-300 whales each season for over a hundred years. The boats they used are amazingly small (no photo, sorry.) I think it would have taken a very brave man to go out in one of the small whaling boats and harpoon one of the biggest animals on earth.

Once again, just like in Tahiti, Captain James Cook is celebrated and honored on this island as well. It would have been interesting to have met this man and to have heard him tell stories of his travels.

To get from one side of the yacht harbor to the other in Picton, one must cross the bridge, locally and lovingly referred to as “the coathanger.” And, I guess if you at the right angle, like maybe on a boat going under it, the bridge is shaped a bit like a coat hanger. On either end of the bridge, the rules for using it are clearly posted and strictly enforced…almost all of the posted rules, at least.

The harbor area in Picton has also been developed into a park and commercial area that is supporting of, and appealing to, tourists. Tourism is the number one industry in New Zealand. Pictured above is a nice clean open area adjacent to the yacht harbor that is sometimes used for public performances. Out of frame and to the left is a large grassy park where lots of people enjoying some live music on this Saturday morning. The local Lion’s Club was hosting a little party to raise money to support a local orphanage. I’d say the town was really hopping on this cool, fall-like day.

As part of the festivities, I was lucky enough to catch this quartet of bagpipers marching through the area, again try to raise interest in, and money for, the orphanage.

At the end of the tour, all participants were offered a long black (some way of serving coffee), a tea, or an ice cream. I turned down all of these offers since I had noticed an Irish pub very close by. I excused myself from the group and walked a half a block down to the pub. (It’s that “pub gravitational pull” once again.)

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This little place seem very authentic to me, as if it had been plucked right out of Dublin at set down here in Picton. And, that it was happy to be here. There was beer on draught including the ones you would expect. You could order up a pint of Guinness, or have a Kilkenny’s. Or, you could also find and enjoy a very decent Panhead American Pale Ale, which I did.

At about 1pm I started back toward the ship. “All aboard” was to be at 1:30pm so it was certainly time to go. On the walk back I came across a gentleman who was on his way to a car rally. He was planning to attend in his 1961 MGB, pictured here.

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This car was nearly as old as I am, and it was in far better shape! It’s really fun to see old classic cars like this one when they’re still running properly and reflect all of the love and attention that has been given to them. The only thing that could be cooler than driving around in this little blue british heartbreaker would be riding around on a BSA or Triumph motorcycle of about the same vintage. Huh, Matt?

So, that was my brief, but very pleasant, visit to Picton, New Zealand. Within an hour of my arrival back at the Amsterdam, we were pulling away from Picton and heading straight for Australia!

So, Robert, do you have any other friends on board?

Why, yes! I do. World, I’d like for you to meet Lizel!

Lizel works in the many bars on board and is second in command to the all powerful bartenders. It’s always very nice to hear Lizel call out my name when I come up to the Lido deck. She does an excellent job of keeping a cold drink at my table. She also knows that I’m seeking out craft beers from around the world. On Tahiti, while she was out enjoying some of her rare shore time (crew of this ship seldom get a whole day off) she remembered me and smuggled a bottle of Tahitian beer back onboard the Amsterdam, held it in her room, and the delivered it to me the next time she saw me on the Lido deck. I’m not sure which filled me with happiness the most, the beer she brought to me, or the notion of what she went though to get it for me.

That’s what friends do!

So, what’s coming up?

Next, we have two days at sea, then we’ll dock in Sydney, Australia. Two days at sea sounds good to me. I need that time to get all caught up on my posts.

I’ll have more for you later!