Picton: A shifting destination - Tim Reed

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Picton is the gateway to the South Island, with road and rail ferry linking to Wellington. In 2013 a proposal to relocate the inter-island ferry service was rejected, allowing and requiring investment in Picton. Moving the terminal 55km south to Clifford Bay would have resulted in a total time reduction for cars on the trip of 80 minutes and 110 minutes for rail and cost $525 million dollars. However, the Government would have been required to fill a funding shortfall and it was decided Picton was capable of servicing the traffic across the Cook Strait for the next 30 years. Summarised well by Marlborough District Mayor Alistair Sowman, “The axe is no longer hanging over the heads of Picton’s businesses and we can all now get on with future planning.” Picton is surrounded by gorgeous scenery and recreational opportunities, with the surrounding area being rich in biodiversity of native flora and fauna with many areas regenerating from post-colonial clearance, making it highly attractive to trampers walking the Queen Charlotte Track or exploring the many bays and coves by kayak or boat.

Vision:  By 2044 Picton will be a tourist destination, which celebrates and draws on the local environment and ecology of the bush and aquatic life – a distinctive feature of the Queen Charlotte Sound. Piction will be a vibrant waterfront community where people come to explore the many attractions which Picton has to offer. Pciton will satisfy the needs of tourists and residents for beneficial contact with the natural world through visual and physical connections.

Picton will have an enhanced environment that will draw upon its geological history celebrating the notion of sinking, sliding and shifting, with an enriched quality of life, a multi-sensory landscape, strong connection to the natural world and rich sense of place culminating in a new Picton, with the flavours and character of the old.