Picton, New Zealand
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Picton is a town in the Marlborough region of New Zealand, located near the head of Queen Charlotte Sound near the north-east corner of the South Island of New Zealand. The population (2001) is 3,063. It is named after Sir Thomas Picton, the military associate of the Duke of Wellington, who was killed at the Battle of Waterloo.
Inter-island ferries arrive and depart here on their way to and from Wellington by way of the Marlborough Sounds. Most of the sheltered part of the route is through Tory Channel south of Arapawa Island. The township of Waikawa is a couple of minutes drive from Picton and both Waikawa and Picton are practically part of the same town. Waikawa hosts a marina which is one of the largest in New Zealand.
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[edit] Transport
The Main North railway line and State Highway 1 link Picton southwards to Blenheim, Christchurch and beyond, while scenic Queen Charlotte Drive (shorter in distance but usually slower than State Highway 1/State Highway 6 via Blenheim) winds westward to Havelock.
The daily TranzCoastal long-distance passenger train to Christchurch begins and terminates in Picton.
Picton is serviced too by Picton Airport at nearby Koromiko where regular services fly to Wellington and chartered flights fly around the Marlborough sounds.
Nearby settlements are at Anakiwa, Waikawa, and Shakespeare Bay.
The Edwin Fox Maritime Centre features the Edwin Fox, the only surviving ship that transported convicts to Australia, which is undergoing preservation and restoration.
[edit] Notable people born in Picton
- Judith Adams - Australian politician
- Lance Cairns - Champion All-rounder for the New Zealand cricket team
[edit] Miscellaneous
The famous author Katherine Mansfield spent some time in Picton where her grandparents, Arthur and Mary Beauchamp, and her father Harold, lived for some time when they came from Australia. She included a reference to the port in her short story "The Voyage" (in the collection The Garden Party), which is "an account of a trip to Picton from Wellington on the Cook Strait ferry" [1].
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