DAY 4. PICTON.
Picton, in New Zealand’s South Island, was the first port of the nineteen day cruise. Peter fussed with his camera as they lined up in the Music Hall for tickets for the shuttle bus that would take them through to the township. The port was stacked with pine logs, destined, the driver told them, for export all over the world.
In the small, scenic town they boarded a steam train that chugged through cattle farming areas, past sidings where passengers filmed the historic train, and up hills through natural vegetation and pine plantations. The driver pointed out an area where ill-advised willow trees had been planted beside a creek, the trees now poisoned and dying, so that in time the creek would return to health and its wildlife would return. Genevieve had given back Thomas
