Picton (Māori: Waitohi) is a town in the Marlborough Region of New Zealand’s South Island. The town is located near the head of the Queen Charlotte Sound / Tōtaranui, 25 km (16 mi) north of Blenheim and 65 km (40 mi) west of Wellington. Waikawa lies just north-east of Picton and is considered to be a contiguous part of the Picton urban area.

Picton is a major hub in New Zealand’s transport network, connecting the South Island road and rail network with ferries across Cook Strait to Wellington and the North Island. The Picton urban area has a population of 4,800 (June 2022),^[1] making it the second-largest town in the Marlborough Region behind Blenheim. It is the easternmost town in the South Island with a population of at least 1,000 people.

History

Prior to European settlement, the Te Atiawa o Te Waka-a-Māui iwi occupied Waitohi Pā on the site of the present town. In March 1850, Sir George Grey and Sir Francis Dillon purchased the land from Te Āti Awa, who moved to neighbouring Waikawa Bay. In 1859, the Marlborough Province was created and the newly named Picton became the provincial capital. The provincial capital was moved to Blenheim in 1865.^[6][7]

Author Katherine Mansfield spent 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 ».^[8][9]

The roll-on/roll-off (RORO) road and rail ferry service between Picton and Wellington started on 11 August 1962, operated by the New Zealand Railways Department with the ship GMV Aramoana.^[10]