Day trip to Picton and wine country

Yesterday (Saturday) was a beautiful day and so we planned to get out of town and take a day trip over to Picton, the little town where the ferry crossings land from Wellington (and depart too, I guess!). We took the Queen Charlotte Drive road to Picton, which is the road that you'd take to do this famous tramp. It is beautiful and scenic, driving you along the Queen Charlotte Sound in Marlborough Sound.
This photo is just along the road (as are all of them, really) and is of Mahau Sound.

This is the Ngakuta Bay, just a few kilometres down the road.









We think this is Little Ngakuta Bay, but not totally sure. It doesn't appear there is a road down to this little beach and house, but many locations in the Marlborough Sound don't have roads leading to them, you have to take a water taxi from Picton.







We are closing in on Picton here, and this is Shakespeare Bay, one bay before we get to Picton and see the ferry.








And here is the view as we drive around the bays and land in the Picton area, on Picton Harbour. The ferries cross between Wellington, on the North island, and Picton, on the South Island, several times per day. This ferry here left shortly after we parked in Picton to walk around, but another one had already landed!





And here is that one that landed, turning around and taking off back to Wellington. Of course in the meantime, we'd had lunch and went on a little hike along the sound. But they turnover fast, considering they have full amenities on board: restaurants, bars, bathrooms, etc. They aren't just car ferries like in WA state.





Finally, here is a picture of the end of our hike along the sound's beach. We went up above this to hike it out, and then came back along the rocky beach to the marina.

We left about 3pm and headed 25km down the road to Marlborough wine country and hit a few wineries and grabbed ourselves a few bottles of the good stuff. All along the way we ran into the same group of 21-year-old dudes on a "21-run"--even tho you can drink here when you are 18--hitting the wineries for free tastings dressed in nothing but overalls and straw hats (and I mean nothing but, those overalls left little to the imagination). They got kicked out of a few of the cellar doors, they told us when we saw them at our last stop. Can't imagine why!?!