Things to do in Picton

The ferry from Wellington to Picton

Two companies cross Cook Strait: Interislander, which has the most sailings, and Bluebridge, which runs fewer, generally cheaper ones with cabins on its night sailings. The crossing is 92 km and takes about three and a half hours. Roughly the first half is open water across the strait, which can be rough; the last hour or so is the good part, as the ship turns in through Tory Channel and threads the length of Queen Charlotte Sound to Picton with bush-covered hills on both sides. Stand on the outside deck for it if the weather lets you.

• Cook Strait is one of the windier stretches of water in the world. Sailings are cancelled or delayed when the wind and swell are bad, and it happens often enough that you should never plan a tight connection on the other side. If you are prone to seasickness, choose a morning sailing, sit low and in the middle, and look at the horizon.
• Many rental car companies will not let their cars on the ferry. You drop the car at the Wellington terminal and collect another at Picton, which is quick and saves the vehicle fare. Check your agreement before you book the crossing with a car.
• Book ahead for school holidays, Christmas and Easter, especially with a vehicle. Foot passenger space is rarely a problem.
• The paid lounges on Interislander have food, drinks and quieter seating; 19 of our itineraries include the upgrade. On a rough day a lounge seat is a real comfort. On a fine one, the deck is better.

Our Cook Strait ferry guide goes into the timetables, the two operators and what to do when a sailing is cancelled.

Things to do in Picton

Most of what is worth doing is on the water or beside it. For a town most people see only from a car queue, there is more here than you would guess.

• Queen Charlotte Sound cruises: boats leave the town wharf for Ship Cove, where James Cook anchored repeatedly on his voyages in the 1770s, and for Motuara Island, a predator-free bird sanctuary where you can walk up through the bush and hear birds that have gone from the mainland. 2 of our itineraries include a cruise with a walk.
• The Seafood Odyssea: a cruise out to a mussel farm in the Sounds, with Greenshell mussels and Marlborough wine on board. It is on 2 of our itineraries and is the easiest way to see how the mussels are grown.
• The Edwin Fox: in a dry dock by the ferry terminal sits the hull of a ship built of teak in Calcutta in 1853. It served in the Crimean War, carried convicts to Western Australia and immigrants to New Zealand, and ended its working life as a hulk in Picton. It is the only surviving ship that transported convicts to Australia, and the small museum around it tells the story well.
• Short walks: the Snout Track follows the ridge between Picton and Waikawa bays out to the Queen Charlotte View, a half day return from town, and a shorter path leads round the harbour to Bob's Bay, a small swimming cove. Kaipupu Point, across the harbour, is a small wildlife sanctuary reached by a short boat trip.
• Kayaking: guided and freedom kayak hire from Picton and Waikawa. The water in the inner sound is sheltered on most mornings.
• The Picton Heritage and Whaling Museum on the foreshore, and EcoWorld Aquarium, which looks after injured little blue penguins and has tuatara, fill a wet afternoon.

The Queen Charlotte Track and the Sounds

The Queen Charlotte Track runs 73.5 km along the ridges and bays between Ship Cove and Anakiwa, and takes three to five days on foot. It is unlike the Great Walks because you never have to carry much: water taxis from Picton drop walkers at the start and carry their bags between lodges, and you can walk a single section as a day trip. From Punga Cove to Furneaux Lodge is one of the best, and 1 of our itineraries do it. Parts of the track cross private land, and a small land access pass is required.

The Marlborough Sounds as a whole are a flooded maze of valleys with more coastline than anywhere else in the region, most of it reachable only by boat. A lot of the lodges and holiday homes have no road at all. If you have time for one night out in the Sounds rather than in Picton, it is the better night; 1 of our itineraries stay at Punga Cove. For divers, the wreck of the Russian cruise ship Mikhail Lermontov, which sank in Port Gore in 1986, is one of the largest diveable wrecks in the world.

Getting to Picton, and where to go next

By road, Picton sits at the end of State Highway 1. Blenheim, the centre of the Marlborough wine region, is 27 km south and about 25 minutes away, which is why the vineyards are an easy half day from the ferry. Nelson is about two hours west, either on State Highway 6 or on Queen Charlotte Drive, the winding coastal road through Havelock, the mussel capital, which is slower but much prettier. Kaikōura is two hours south down the coast, and Christchurch around four hours without stops.

The Coastal Pacific train runs between Picton and Christchurch from September to April, along the Kaikōura coast, and connects with the ferry. The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Blenheim, with direct flights to Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch; small planes also fly between Wellington and Picton's own airstrip at Koromiko, which takes about 25 minutes and avoids the strait entirely.

Is Picton worth staying in

For most people, one night at most. 37 of our itineraries that sleep here stay for one night, usually because the ferry lands late in the afternoon and there is no point driving on in the dark. That night is pleasant: a walk along the foreshore, dinner on the marina, an early start. Two nights make sense only if you want a day on the Sounds, a cruise or a section of the track, and in that case we would rather you spent the second night in the Sounds themselves. If you land in the morning, drive on: Blenheim and its wineries are 25 minutes away and make a better base for the region. See our Marlborough page and the Nelson and Marlborough guide.

Weather in Picton is milder and sunnier than in Wellington across the water, and summer evenings on the foreshore are long. What matters more is the strait: when a strong southerly or northerly is blowing, the ferries are the thing that changes, not the town. Check the MetService forecast for Picton and the ferry company's sailing updates on the morning you travel.

Where to stay in Picton

Picton has motels, a few boutique hotels and bed and breakfasts, backpackers and holiday parks, most within walking distance of the ferry terminal. The properties our itineraries use, with the number of our tours that sleep in each:

• Sennen House, a restored villa bed and breakfast, on 5 itineraries.
• Escape to Picton Boutique Hotel, on the waterfront, on 3.
• Hotel Beachcomber Inn, on the foreshore close to the terminal, on 2.
• Punga Cove Resort, out in Endeavour Inlet on the Queen Charlotte Track, reached by boat, on 1.

In summer, and on nights when a cancelled sailing leaves hundreds of people stranded, beds go quickly. Every tour that passes through is on our Picton tours list.