Picton, New Zealand

Today the ship docked in Picton, which was our only port on the South Island of New Zealand. We had found a place on the internet to rent bikes. We found it with no trouble. We rode over a large bridge then got lost and couldn’t compare our position to the map. Luckily there was a kind man out for a walk who redirected us and told us that the flower my mom had was prepared by a group of ladies who spend weeks making thousands of them. After chatting with him for a few minutes we continued on our way. 

My mom with her flower.

We rode up and down many mountain bike trails for a long time. It was fun and exciting. Eventually we reached the end of the snout (what the locals call one of the more popular fingers branching off of the island. We decided to go back a different route which had many sharp turns which where difficult because our bikes were the wrong sizes. Eventually we made it back and rode through town for a while. 

Our ride on the snout.

After that we looked around at the shops that were set up. We talked to a man who was selling photos that he had taken. He was very interesting and told us all about New Zealand. My mom saw a serving platter made from an old barrel that she wanted and I saw a really cool pen hand made from wood with real gold in on it. Both of the things were cool but we didn’t buy them.

We decided it would be fun to get some green lip muscles before the ship left. We walked to a nearby restaurant and ordered some. My mom ordered a strange salad made of purple rice stuff or something. The muscles were good but there were so many that I couldn’t finish them. Just then a lady came by who was wondering if she should get any. She asked me how they were and so we offered the rest to her. She happily ate them and chatted with us for a while. Then we got back on the ship

The snout as the ship pulled away from port.

It was a fantastic day!

Till next time!