Little Dumpy and a wet Picton

 

Marlborough Sounds from the air - (file photo)

It is a long time since I travelled in the South Island when it is cold, and the snow is on the mountains.  The last time I recall doing it was when I was in my early twenties.  Bev thought it was a good idea, so the road trip was born.

The plan was to travel to Picton, then to Christchurch via St Arnaud and the Lewis Pass,  then onto Twizel for a couple of days and Queenstown for three nights to see what it is like when the snow is all around.  Then it will be Oamaru for a night and catching up with a friend in Christchurch, a night in Kaikoura and finally a night in Blenheim before making our way across the ditch to Wellington. 

The morning on which we were about to depart heralded the first change to our plans.  An announcement on the radio said that not only was the road via Nelson closed but the road to St Arnaud was also closed due to the major rain storm that had occurred last week.  Instead we will be travelling to Christchurch via Kaikoura. 

It was our first trip on a Bluebridge ship the Straitsman which I have referred to affectionately as Little Dumpy.  We were blessed with a calm crossing, and we even managed, eventually, to score a seat next to the window so we were happy enough.  The sounds of the ship are different to the Interisland ships.  There is a lot more vibration and it almost feels like it is chugging away like the TS Earnslaw.  

Our initial seats on the Straitsman

 

The ferry arrived early at Picton and we were surprised to get off the ferry so quickly. After all the bad weather it was a relief to have such a calm and uneventful ferry crossing.

After booking into our hotel, we wandered down the road to check out places to have a drink.  Bev suggested that I try somewhere I had not been to before and so it was the Oxley’s Hotel that we settled on.  

When I was a child the Oxley’s was one of three pubs along the waterfront where the “six o’clock swill” occurred.  I can remember being around the streets at around 5pm when the men (it was all men) flooded into the hotels, especially the Oxley’s as it was across the road from where my father worked.  I can still smell the stale beer that used to waft out of the door when it was opened. 

Now the hotel is a modern place where both food and alcohol are served.  The façade of the hotel was preserved and inside a modern and pleasant bar/restaurant have been created. 

We decided to eat there and had some well-cooked and tasty fish and kumara chips. Unfortunately, blue cod was not on the menu.  When we left a cold rain had set in so it was good that we only had a couple of hundred metres to walk back to the Picton Yacht Club Hotel and fortunately most of it was under cover.