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Picton: More Fun Than Poking Yourself In The Eye With A Chopstick
Kaikoura -> Picton, 22nd November 2001.
 Our next stop was the small & quite quiet town of
Picton. The only
purpose of this town is being the main port for crossings between
the North & South Islands. Apart from being an entry/exit point,
there isn't much else there, so we decided to stay for only one
night.
On the coach, we ended up sat next to this weird guy. He had a wiry
bear and wore a western style hat. When we all decided to play
cards, he insisted on calling everyone 'sir': 'Your go sir', 'A
seven of hearts sir' etc. And when someone asked him a question
about fencing, he proceeded to do a 3 hour demonstration with a
conveniently handy chopstick. The poor guy who asked the question
was almost asleep by the end.
When we arrived in Picton, most people continued travelling, some up
to Wellington, others round to Nelson. But we decided to spend a
night here to see if there was anything to entertain us. As the
weather was still very dull and grey, we hurried off to our chosen
hostel, the Atlantis, which was luckily just around the corner. It
as an average hostel, not bad, but nothing screaming "This is great"
either. The only point of interest was the reason we'd chosen it in
the first place, the swimming pool. It was nice and refreshing and
useful for a quick bout of exercise or fun (Definitely mutually
exclusive).
 After a quick trip around the town we had surveyed pretty much
everything. We popped into the '4 Square Discounter' Supermarket,
THE cheap-and-not-cheerful supermarket of New Zealand. On our walk
back to the hostel we pass a group of school kids laying a long
chain of coins along the pavement. Hmmm, trustworthy people in
Picton, I'm sure the coins would be stolen the minute they were put
down if we were in LA!
Back at the hostel, we have quick swim in the pool. We mess around
more than swim, then when Emily playfully screamed a little, and
employee rushed in to check she was alright. Hmmm. Comforting but a
little 'big brother-ish', there must be microphones or cameras
around. After our quick swim I spent some time trying to master the
chopsticks by eating Jelly Beans one at a time with them. I did
quite well, before I realised that I was using left hand, which is
taboo in a lot of countries. So I started all over again, training
my right hand to use chop sticks. After a few frustrating attempts,
I decided to leave it for another time...
As it was quite late and there was exactly ZERO nightlife we decide
to stay in the hostel & chill in the common room. Luckily tonight
was free movie & popcorn night. Unluckily, they showed 'Get Carter',
a not so great film with Sly Stallone. Of more interest were the
cool giant, orange lobsters perched on rocks in a huge tank in the
corner of the room. Every time they move, all eyes are on them
instead of the TV!
After the LONG film, it was late into the night and we decided to
hit the sack.
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To know the road ahead, ask those coming back
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