• This year we’re starting off with a bang
• Down on the shore. It was our plan
• With hundreds of others, we stopped and stared
• At a bright, bold start for this new year
• May all have health, and love, and fun
• Happy New Year, from bright Picton.

That, more or less, was the poem I sent to my friends as a Happy New Year greeting. I had it all ready to go at about 12.30am, but the Wi-Fi wasn’t cooperating. So I tried to send it in the morning, and it nearly worked, until the Wi-Fi packed a sad again. So I waited until I’d got the Wi-Fi sorted on the train between Picton and Kaikōura and finally got it to go.

Scott and Kally, the night after New Year’s

The first thing we did was have our breakfast – me while Pen was still sleeping. And mine was fresh fruit, yoghurt, and last night’s left over garlic bread, which I could be bothered carting around the country and I didn’t want to waste.

Once we were both fed and packed, we checked out of Picton House B&B, and was farewelled by a very chatty Coral (I got her name wrong yesterday), who called us “Girls”. So we’re both an “Old Couple” and “Girls”. I think we’ve got something of an identity crisis going on here.

One thing that I’ve long wanted to do and have never been able for a variety of reasons, is check out the Edwin Fox sailing ship. This relic is:

• Last surviving ship that took convicts to Australia
• Last wooden Crimea War troop carrier
• Oldest Merchant ship in the World
• Pioneering refrigeration Ship
• Oldest wooden vessel that brought immigrants to New Zealand

Every time prior to this where we’ve been in Picton, the boat’s either been less than ready to be viewed, or we haven’t had time. Today we rectified that. (I paid both of our entrance fees of $15.)

It’s another excellent little museum, focussing on just the one subject (with the exception of its mentioning of some notable genuine local shipwrecks – which the Edwin Fox is not.) The building tells you about the Edwin Fox’s history, both in artifacts and with a video. But outside is the pièce de résistance. The boat itself. Admittedly, its seen better days, but it’s being preserved now, rather than restored, so you can get and idea of its size and construction.

This fascinated me as the frame’s all made of string and knots. Probably a bit beyond my macrame level.

One of my highlights was that as we were looking at the exterior of the Edwin Fox, which is housed in a pumped out dry dock, I could see a ray of some description swimming around the platform surrounding it. I pointed it out to Pen, but I don’t know if singing the Stingray theme was entirely appropriate.

We did a little bit of souvenir shopping, and I bought myself a $5, pink, Pōhutukawa embossed, card holder, that’ll fit better into my belt bag.

After that, we decided that we were going to have another Toastie Lords toastie for lunch (I had an Ivan – Pastrami, Sauerkraut (which I don’t remember having), and pickle – and an old-fashioned lemonade. As there was a twenty-minute wait, I left Pen waiting and dashed over to the Picton Society of Model Engineers, aka Rail and Sail, Picton. Being a foundation, subscribing life member of the Thames Small Gauge Railway, naturally I have an interest in other small gauge railways. And, of course, after a chat to the only engineer on their team (they have about 15 volunteers), I had to have a ride. They operate on donation payments, so I gave them $5 and enjoyed my twice around the track. Well, I tried to enjoy it, as I’d just sat on the train when my watch vibrated a message from Pen to say our toasties were ready. So I spent the next five minutes in a mixture of wanting the train to hurry and wanting the ride to continue.

As soon as the train came to a stop, I was off and running back to Pen and my lunch. And I am quite proud of the way I was able to job without needing to stop. All this extra eating can’t be doing me too much damage.

We took our toasties and drinks to the i-Site and sat outside to enjoy them (except that I was still in hurry up mode, so I bolted my lunch down) and then collected our cases from the i-Site. We then wheeled them over the road to the railway station and checked in. The ticket lady knew who we were because we were the only pair they were expecting.

Our seats were carriage B, seats 7A and B and we got ourselves sorted. Eventually. Great Journey’s NZ (aka Kiwirail) used to have an in-carriage system whereby you could plug headphones into the jacks in the centre console between seats, and listen to the commentary whenever the screen in the centre of the aisle told you that you were about to pass something of interest. Now you need connect to the Wi-Fi to download an app (which I’d prepared earlier), log in to the app, and then you have access to the audio commentary. This took me longer than expected because I was trying to log in on my phone and laptop, but couldn’t find one of the characters on my phone that the laptop’s automatic password generator was suggesting. Finally, I got this sorted.

But, one good thing about this system is that, if for some reason you miss a bit of commentary, you can now go back and listen to it again. You won’t have the scenery outside to relate to, but at least you’ll know something about that river you passed a couple of kilometres ago.

I love travelling by train, but this trip was just too short. The fact that we were getting off at an interim stop and not the terminus also made it doubly on-edgy, as I knew that everything had to be packed up and ready to go as soon as the train pulled into the station.

Where it was raining.

There was a shuttle driver and he was willing to take us, and an Israeli couple with their little boy, to the Lazy Shag Hostel, but he was out of room. So we sheltered where we could and waited for him to come back an collect us. It was a bit ironic, really, as if we’d been able to cross the railway tracks and fight our way through a hedge we’d be there. But, honestly, paying $20 between the two of us for a shuttle was much easier than getting wet.

Okay, about the Lazy Shag… It has good Wi-Fi and… and that’s about it. It does have a lovely massaging shower, but there was nowhere in the bathroom to hang your towels, and the window here didn’t fit properly and was screwed shut. The radiator in the room was leaking, so the proprietress, who, to be honest, couldn’t do enough for us, brought us in a heater.

Pen’s bed, a double, had been made up. But the other option was either the top or bottom of a bunk bed. This did have a bottom sheet, but I had to make the rest of it. And, whilst it was high enough for me to sit up in, I had to be careful about where I sat as there was a length of RHS (you can tell I used to work for an engineering factory) metal bar running the length of the top bed for strength – right at head banging height.

There was only one spare chair, the head of my bunk was next to the sliding toilet door, there was nowhere to put anything when you were in bed, but at least everything seemed clean. And the bed was comfortable enough to sleep in.

So we went out.

…And bought our breakfast. I bought a fruit salad and a yoghurt to last me two days.

Afterwards, we were hunting for something to eat, so we tried a couple of restaurants. The first was closed because it was New Year’s Day. The second (the Strawberry Tree) was full, so we booked a table to tomorrow night. The wait staff who assisted us recommended the Whaler, which was in the same block, but we crossed over the road and went to Groper Garage. This was quieter, and I ordered an entre-sized Southern-style chicken and a side salad – and that was more than enough! And very tasty. We had a hot chocolate, with a chocolate fish, for dessert.

And then came back to our accommodation.

Steps = 16,114

Kilometres walked = 11.2