Well, it rained heavily overnight, but we woke to bright skies although it was quite cool. After packing up the few things we used o’night, we drove to the Edwin Fox museum on the waterfront.
The Edwin Fox is the ninth oldest ship in the world, and the only remaining wooden sailing ship which transported troops and supplies to the Crimean War (1854). It is the only surviving wooden ship that carried convicts to Australia and NZ’s only surviving wooden ship that brought immigrants to NZ (1873).
It’s in a dry dock in Picton harbour and the museum tells the story of its life. One of the immigrants transported in 1873 was a Margaret Davison, a servant, aged 21yrs.
There was a convict called Davidson but, try as I could, I couldn’t find a convict called Thomas Davison! In 1999, a small band of volunteers with a part government grant, salvaged the ship from its grounded position in Shakespear Bay (just round the headland from Picton) and towed it to its present position. For a vessel that’s been abandoned and at the mercy of sea tides for so many years, the timbers are amazingly well preserved. You can walk inside the hold and on part of the lower deck.
We were both very impressed with the story and the museum.
After a quick coffee (but no sticky), we went to get in the queue for the ferry. The signage for the Interislander is sadly lacking. We followed the signs for the Ferry Terminal and ended up with the foot passengers. Having been round twice, I had to go and ask for directions. The lady I spoke to admitted that the signs were not clear, but sent us back almost into Picton then over the railway lines, round the back of the passenger terminal and on to vehicle check in. Boarding was late and we set off 20 minutes late. You’ll probably have seen the blog entry I did from the Kaitaki Lounge – it was a very pleasant way to do the crossing.
The lounge is large, but there were only a dozen using it,
as opposed to the "free" seating area, which was crowded, with children running amok. No under 15s allowed in the lounge, and there is a ready supply of coffee, continental breakfast, and a drinks and buffet chiller which is all included in the upgrade price, as well as a couple of terminals with free broadband access.Definitely worth the extra, although only available on this particular ship. (the 0815 sailing from Wellington and the 1315 from Picton) It poured with rain once we were out in the Cook Strait, but was sunny on arrival in Wellington. Since we were late, we joined the evening rush hour traffic and inched our way north on SH2.
The road up the Hutt valley is quite exciting! After we’d left the worst of the traffic behind, we climbed up to 555m to the Rimutaka, passing the sites where Rivendell and Fords of Isen were filmed. On the winding roads down (with sheer drops on MY side into densely forested valleys), we passed the sites where Lothlorien and Gladden Fields were filmed (all info for LOTR fans). All these sites are only accessible by 4x4 vehicles and there is nothing left there of the actual film sets – you would just have to use your imagination to envisage the scenes. Although the bends were no worse than previous roads we’ve travelled here, and we didn’t climb as high, the steep sided valleys and hills are definitely the most heart stopping!
Once past Featherston, you’re back on the flat and pretty straight roads. Greytown and Carterton are typical long villages/towns, but, unfortunately the shops and information centres were closed. We passed signs for a cobblestone museum – the mind boggles! – how much information about cobblestones can there be? There must be more to it than that but it’ll have to remain a mystery to us.
We’re staying at Masterton tonight in the Chanel Court Motel – nothing remotely French designer about it, but clean and adequate for a one night stay. It’s a cold, miserable evening, raining – again! – so we’ve foregone a walkabout and are having an early night. We haven’t got far to travel tomorrow, so will do some exploring in the morning – we understand there’s a shearing museum just up the road, so we may have to visit that and educate you all on facts about shearing you never knew! Tom’s been watching TV as I write this and the adverts are clearly aimed at the farming community. One ad was for a probiotic for calves which all good farmers shouldn’t be without, as it improves the performance of the rumen – wonder if it would do anything for Tom? Another was for a genetically engineered grass seed – oh, he watches some really riveting things. The ads were shown in breaks during a rugby match(!!) taking place in Christchurch – where it’s absolutely throwing it down. They can’t blame us for that cos we’re not even on S Island now.
The Edwin Fox is the ninth oldest ship in the world, and the only remaining wooden sailing ship which transported troops and supplies to the Crimean War (1854). It is the only surviving wooden ship that carried convicts to Australia and NZ’s only surviving wooden ship that brought immigrants to NZ (1873). It’s in a dry dock in Picton harbour and the museum tells the story of its life. One of the immigrants transported in 1873 was a Margaret Davison, a servant, aged 21yrs. There was a convict called Davidson but, try as I could, I couldn’t find a convict called Thomas Davison! In 1999, a small band of volunteers with a part government grant, salvaged the ship from its grounded position in Shakespear Bay (just round the headland from Picton) and towed it to its present position. For a vessel that’s been abandoned and at the mercy of sea tides for so many years, the timbers are amazingly well preserved. You can walk inside the hold and on part of the lower deck. We were both very impressed with the story and the museum.After a quick coffee (but no sticky), we went to get in the queue for the ferry. The signage for the Interislander is sadly lacking. We followed the signs for the Ferry Terminal and ended up with the foot passengers. Having been round twice, I had to go and ask for directions. The lady I spoke to admitted that the signs were not clear, but sent us back almost into Picton then over the railway lines, round the back of the passenger terminal and on to vehicle check in. Boarding was late and we set off 20 minutes late. You’ll probably have seen the blog entry I did from the Kaitaki Lounge – it was a very pleasant way to do the crossing.
The lounge is large, but there were only a dozen using it, as opposed to the "free" seating area, which was crowded, with children running amok. No under 15s allowed in the lounge, and there is a ready supply of coffee, continental breakfast, and a drinks and buffet chiller which is all included in the upgrade price, as well as a couple of terminals with free broadband access.Definitely worth the extra, although only available on this particular ship. (the 0815 sailing from Wellington and the 1315 from Picton) It poured with rain once we were out in the Cook Strait, but was sunny on arrival in Wellington. Since we were late, we joined the evening rush hour traffic and inched our way north on SH2.The road up the Hutt valley is quite exciting! After we’d left the worst of the traffic behind, we climbed up to 555m to the Rimutaka, passing the sites where Rivendell and Fords of Isen were filmed. On the winding roads down (with sheer drops on MY side into densely forested valleys), we passed the sites where Lothlorien and Gladden Fields were filmed (all info for LOTR fans). All these sites are only accessible by 4x4 vehicles and there is nothing left there of the actual film sets – you would just have to use your imagination to envisage the scenes. Although the bends were no worse than previous roads we’ve travelled here, and we didn’t climb as high, the steep sided valleys and hills are definitely the most heart stopping!
Once past Featherston, you’re back on the flat and pretty straight roads. Greytown and Carterton are typical long villages/towns, but, unfortunately the shops and information centres were closed. We passed signs for a cobblestone museum – the mind boggles! – how much information about cobblestones can there be? There must be more to it than that but it’ll have to remain a mystery to us.We’re staying at Masterton tonight in the Chanel Court Motel – nothing remotely French designer about it, but clean and adequate for a one night stay. It’s a cold, miserable evening, raining – again! – so we’ve foregone a walkabout and are having an early night. We haven’t got far to travel tomorrow, so will do some exploring in the morning – we understand there’s a shearing museum just up the road, so we may have to visit that and educate you all on facts about shearing you never knew! Tom’s been watching TV as I write this and the adverts are clearly aimed at the farming community. One ad was for a probiotic for calves which all good farmers shouldn’t be without, as it improves the performance of the rumen – wonder if it would do anything for Tom? Another was for a genetically engineered grass seed – oh, he watches some really riveting things. The ads were shown in breaks during a rugby match(!!) taking place in Christchurch – where it’s absolutely throwing it down. They can’t blame us for that cos we’re not even on S Island now.
Anyway, that’s all the excitement for today, so goodnight – I’ll have to go and lie down to recover!
No comments:
Post a Comment