The town is named after Sir Thomas Picton, the Welsh military associate of the Duke of Wellington, who was killed at the Battle of Waterloo.

Thomas Picton's connection to the slave trade and controversial governorship of Trinidad has resulted in calls for places named after him to be renamed.

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".

[9][10] 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.

The township extends northeast along rolling land towards Waikawa Bay, separated from Picton Harbour by The Snout and Victoria Domain.

[7] On the land side, Picton is surrounded by hills and mountains, including Te Tara-o-Te-Marama/Mount Freeth to the west, the Robertson Range to the south and Mount McCormick to the east.

The Elevation Saddle connects southwest of the town with the Tuamarina River valley and contains the main land transport routes between Picton and the rest of the South Island.

Picton, including Waikawa, is defined by Statistics New Zealand as a small urban area and covers 9.64 km2 (3.72 sq mi).

[12] Picton's economy is largely influenced by its status as a major transport hub, in addition to servicing tourists and residents in the Queen Charlotte Sound.

[15] At the 2018 census, the three largest industries (ANZSIC divisions) of employment for Picton residents were accommodation and food services, transport postal and warehousing, and retail trade.

A popular dive trip is to the 177-metre long wreck of the cruise liner MS Mikhail Lermontov, which lies at Port Gore, 37 metres underwater.

[21] Dive charter boats leave from Picton for the last resting place of the Mikhail Lermontov, one of the world's largest, most accessible and most recent shipwrecks.

The original Picton railway station was located on London Quay; the platform still exists, bisected by the Memorial Archway steps.

[27] The Coastal Pacific long-distance passenger/tourist train from Christchurch made a daily return trip to Picton during the summer months until its scheduled passenger services were suspended in December 2021.

There have been proposals in recent years (the latest in 2011) to relocate the ferry terminals from Picton to Clifford Bay, south of Blenheim, to reduce travel times.

[30][31] Following the 2023 New Zealand general election, the ferry replacement project and its associated terminal redevelopments were cancelled by the incoming Sixth National Government.

Electricity was generated by a Pelton wheel on the Waitohi River, which was later supplemented by suction gas engines, and was reticulated to customers using a 230/460-volt three-wire DC system.

[36] Prior to the commissioning of the Picton wastewater treatment plant in 1999, all the town's sewage was discharge raw into Queen Charlotte Sound.

A private television translator was built in 1964 on Mount Freeth west of the town, relaying WNTV1 (now part of TVNZ 1) from Wellington.