Edwin Fox Museum, Picton Heritage and Whaling Museum, Tirohanga Track
When it was time to leave Christchurch, instead of taking the expensive InterCity bus to Picton, I decided to do it in a cheaper way to hitchhike my way over there. After taking the regular bus to a place called Woodend, I stuck my thumb out and waited. It was a windy day and a constant drizzle of rain, so it wasn’t the best weather for hitchhiking, but I tried to keep my spirit up.
It was probably less than twenty minutes before I was picked up by a nice family on a road trip who offered to drop me off at Amberley, as at that point they were going on a different road. We chatted a bit on the way, and even though at first I thought about leaving them at the town center, due to a bit of miscommunication they dropped me off at an intersection, which I thought would be a worse place to try and get a ride. Nevertheless, it was a bit too late to change my mind, so I thanked the family, and once more stuck my thumb out.
Nearly half an hour has passed until another person has stopped by me. He too was going in the same direction as the family who brought to the intersection, and informed me that I’ll probably have better chances at the other side of the intersection. I was thinking of doing it anyway, and his suggestion was making me feel it’s the smart thing to do. So I got my bags, crossed over, and stuck my thumb out.
About twenty minutes later, a nice lady stopped by, and initially I asked if she could drop me at Kaikoura. I thought I’ll need to get there, then to Blenheim, and finally to Picton. However, after asking the woman if she is from the area I’m heading to, she told me she’s going to take the ferry to the north island on that day. Unexpectedly, I got a ride all the way straight to Picton.
Happy with the turn of events, I leaned back in the seat and started to relax. We didn’t say much to each other beyond the initial inquiry, and I took a little nap while the ride went along. It was all quiet until we got to Kaikoura and stopped for a bathroom break. It was probably a nice place to spend a couple of days, but not on that particular day. We left without delaying too much, as we still had a couple of hours ahead of us in the car.
This time, we talked for a little more, but the conversation died out fairly quickly and I just enjoyed the ride for a little while. I took another nap and woke up about the time we left Blenheim.
From there it was a short ride away to Picton. I thanked the woman for taking me all the way to my destination, said goodbye, and made my way to my accommodations as she drove away to the ferry terminal.
Unfortunately, this was a point in which things got bad very quickly. The place I checked into the Atlantis Backpackers, while looking reasonable online, seemed quite sketchy when I actually got there and I started to develop a weird feeling. Later on in the day I was harassed by one of the other guests, and immediately complained at the reception. I went for a walk to try and clear my head despite the cold weather, and came back a bit later than I thought I would. It was a long day, I was exhausted, and after trying to relax for a little while in the common area of the building I headed to bed.
I didn’t sleep well, and was still quite upset about the bad experience. I found another place to stay at, notified the manager of Atlantis Backpackers that I’m leaving early, and after she told me I can get a refund I was on my way.
Booking a place at the last minute meant that I had very little choice. I paid quite a bit more, and found myself in a private room for the first time in a while. I wasn’t really happy about paying extra, but I did have a room for myself and decided to try and make the most out of it. For almost the entire stay there, my stuff was scattered around the room in a bit of a mess, which I was somewhat pleased with.
The weather in Picton was gloomy, but I still wanted to go out and do something. The first place I went to was the Edwin Fox Museum. The whole place seemed to be dedicated to the history of one ship, after which the museum was named. At the entrance the staff informed me that it is not possible to go aboard the ship due to repairs and maintenance, and they had no idea when it would be open to the public again. I could still go around the museum itself, and then see the ship from the outside, which is exactly what I did.
The museum had a video talking about the history of Edwin Fox, but I wasn’t able to focus on it and eventually gave up on it. Instead, I just walked around the place looking at everything else it had to offer. There were some items on display, scale models of ships, and quite a bit of information about that one particular ship. The history of the Edwin Fox was fairly detailed, and in addition to it there were the stories of different people who were related to it in one way or the other. There was also a section about some other ships that got wrecked, and I wasn’t entirely sure why.
When I was done with it I went outside to look at the ship. It wasn’t in good condition, but that didn’t seem surprising considered how old the ship actually is. It was a bit smaller than I thought it would be, and after a few quick looks I’ve seen more or less everything that I could’ve seen.
From there I went over to the Picton Heritage and Whaling Museum, which was close by. I was advised to start on the left and make my way around the room and learn about the history of the place in a chronological order.
I was a bit confused at first as for what it is that I’m looking at, and maybe I should’ve paid more attention to the dates at each section of the museum, but I wasn’t entirely sure if I actually went through it in a chronological order, or if it even mattered.
In the beginning there were some stories about the Maori people and some of their interaction with the west. Then there was something about Russia and Antarctic expeditions it had, which I was a bit confused by.
Other than that, there was a big section about the whole whaling industry. It seemed to be just as big of an industry as it was in Australia, which isn’t a big surprise. Other than the mention of some people and their involvement in this industry, there were some whale bones on display and a short video, which I think was related to the russian coming to New Zealand, but I didn’t pay much attention to it to find out.
I kept wandering around the place, and after the whaling industry, there was the history of some other industries, such as the history of ironing, which once again made me confused. There was also the history of a hospital in town, and I wasn’t sure if the museum was the hospital at some point, or if it was in another place. Perhaps I just needed to pay more attention to what I was reading and seeing, but I struggled to understand quite a few things. The last section of the museum was about different sports, and different athletes from the town. Eventually I was back at the starting point and then it was time for me to leave the museum.
As I was not able to hike Queen Charlotte Track, when the weather cleared up I stayed around down and headed over to Tirohanga Track. It was supposed to be a fairly short and easy track, so I decided to do it without packing anything and having to carry extra weight with me. It didn’t take me long to regret that decision.
Getting to the start of the trail was easy, the trail itself wasn’t challenging, and there was a lot of shade between the trees, but it was still a bit hot and going uphill required more effort. Within a few minutes I started to feel hot and a bit sweaty, and wished that I had a bottle of water with me.
Walking among the trees meant there wasn’t much of a view to look at, and although the road was nice and easy to walk on, it wasn’t very special. Some parts in the beginning were a bit muddy, but I got past it very quickly.
As I made my way up to what was marked as a hilltop viewpoint, I came across quite a few other travelers making their way down. Maybe it was due to the length, but it seemed like one of the busiest tracks that I’ve been to in this part of the world. Other than saying hello I didn’t really stop to make conversation, and I just kept going up, then down for a little bit, and I was at the view point.
There was a bench there overlooking the town, the marina, and all the natural views that the area had to offer. It was quite a sight to see, but it was only at that point. The rest of the road was blocked by trees.
I saw no reason to stay up there, and started making my way down, this time going down on the other side of the track, which was just as uninteresting. As I made my way down I saw no other travelers, and after going back to town I took a quick look around the marina before calling it a day and going back to my room.