We saw a variety of fascinating scenes, around each bend in the road, from the town of Nelson to Picton’s harbour. 

Scenery on the `first leg’:

The Pelorus Bridge & river:

As we rode over the funny old bridge, I wasn’t expecting anything special. But the family turned off the road anyway, and found parking (on left side) just after the other side of the bridge. 

`What now?’ I silently thought to myself. But since everyone was getting out of the cars, I got out too. 

This is what it’s like when touring. You never know what next you’ll find. It’s part of the adventure. Going places you’ve never been to before.  

So I just followed everyone else, wherever they went. They walked back towards the bridge. 

 

And just before the bridge they turned to the right and climbed down the hillside. It looked so steep too me! If you remember, I’m scared of unsafe heights. 

It was difficult to climb down:

Why? Because there were no proper steps or hand rail, and you had to navigate big odd shaped bounders and rocks. Not a place for little old ladies like me! 

But if you know me, that doesn’t stop me, as my family teases me. They say, “If she has a camera in her hands (or hanging around her neck) she can do anything!” 

Yes, I’ll do anything to get photos I can possibly use later for paintings. I love the adventure of the challenges just waiting around each corner. 

And what a sight met my eyes! 

With shaky legs, I did climb down. And going down between weeds and over rocks and around bounders, far below, was a most rare gorgeous river scene. 

There were quite a lot of people milling around. And one or two had decided to jump in the river. It was such a delightful place. We stayed there sometime looking around and soaking up its magnificent vista. 

The view from the bridge:

Then climbing back up the side of the hillside, we walked over the bridge, and got this lovely scene from the bridge.  

It’s an oil painting. I didn’t put all the knobbly bits of the rocks in, because it would make the painting look too busy, itsy-bitsy and finicky! 

Then getting back in our cars, we drove on again, until unexpectedly we came across... 

Cullen Point Lookout:

After Havelock, going around a mountainside, we came across a sightseeing spot. It was on a very sharp bend of the road, with the land protruding out into a large lake just at that point.  

When we got out of our cars were discovered an impressive sight, with the lake surrounding it and distant blue mountain ranges on all sides. 

We had thought this was a good place to stop and stretch our legs and take a few photos. But it seems we weren’t the only ones viewing the lake.  

There were many other tourists there too with their cameras, taking photos from all angles. And any available parking spots were taken up with tourists, their buses and Lucy touring vans. Wherever we went through the south island, you would find those Lucy hired holiday vans! 

As you can see this photo has a dust road in the foreground. People were going up that road too, to get a higher view of the lake, on both sides of the lookout point. 

Ngakuta Bay

After travelling on again, we came across Ngakuta and stopped to rest and ventured onto the bay’s beach. It seemed a popular holiday resort area, with sailing boats.  

If you look on the map, it lies between Anakiwa and Picton. 

On the way to and through the Ngakuta bay area, we were fascinated by the variation and unusual vegetation and trees.