Picton Poem by Francis Duggan

Picton Ferry Town of South Island with scrub mountains all around
Everywhere you look there's beauty it's a gem on the high ground
Songthrush, blackbird and chaffinch singing, sparrows chirp on garden trees
On a warm Summer evening with a pleasant freshening breeze.

We arrived on evening ferry left Wellington at half past two
And by six as we were nearing harbour Picton mountains were on view
All around i could see mountains and I'll retain the memory
When the Ferry neared the harbour where the mountains meet the sea.

In Picton a Town in the mountains beauty only meets the eye
Everywhere you look there's mountains shrubby looking green and high
From the main street they look so near half a mile or maybe less
But then again they may be nearer mine is not an accurate guess.

All my life I've lived near mountains and i feel that every mountain has a soul
And by the mountains of old Picton blue waves of Pacific roll
A town surrounded by mountains and mountains by the ocean shore
Such a place one doesn't see often and I've never seen it's likes before.

Men may build a Ferry Harbour near where they built a Mountain Town
But men for all their great endeavour could not drag the mountains down
They were here long before men came and the mountains will remain
And Picton by the sea and mountains will i see it's likes again? .