Thursday 24th saw us heading off early back up the twisty-turny road up Takaka Hill, this time in heavy cloud which made the drive a little ‘exhilarating’ to say the least. Coming back down out of the cloud, we passed through Nelson again, before making our way along the Queen Charlotte Scenic Drive, an equally twisty-turny road, to Picton. The scenery on the way was stunning, with mountainsides plunging down to the bays around Queen Charlotte Sound. We stopped at the top of a hill to take some photos and found a family of Wekas. One was so eager to get any food we might have that she jumped into the van as soon as I opened my door. We fed them a few scraps of bread and watched other visitors amuse themselves by feeding the birds some crackers.

Picton nestles at the end of the Sound, and is the docking point for ferries to and from Wellington on the North Island. We watched from above the harbour as one of the ferries manouvered its way into dock, before driving through the town to our campsite.

We walked into town and found some internet terminals at United Video so we caught up on our email and I uploaded some photos. We also booked some seats on a whale-watching boat from Kaikoura on Saturday morning.

We popped back into town for some excellent fish and chips from a shop on the High Street later.