The New Zealand Site

The Marlborough Sounds area, which lies at the north-east tip of the South Island, is an intricate maze of drowned river valleys with 1,400 kilometres of coastline and waterways. It has dozens of reserves (both on land and at sea) and a wealth of opportunities for kayaking, boating, fishing, diving and tramping.

Marlborough Sounds Map

The landmass of the sounds is the half-submerged remains of a once mighty mountain chain that ran into the North Island, shattered and started sinking. The area is still sinking and the highest peaks are now only 1,000 to 1,200 metres above sea level. The little flat land that exists is mostly sandy coastal strips or where streams and rivers have built up sediments.

The two major waterways are the Pelorus and Queen Charlotte Sounds (52 and 49 kilometres in length respectively) with a multitude of bays, inlets and islands. Captain Cook, who spent over three months in the area in the 1770s, named Queen Charlotte Sound after King George III’s wife. Motuara Island (now a reserve) in the outer part of the sound is where Cook raised the British flag in 1770, proclaiming British sovereignty over the South Island, blithely ignoring the presence of the Maori people and the fact that they had already been here for hundreds of years.

Maori called Pelorus Sound ‘Te Hoiere’ and Queen Charlotte ‘Totaranui’ and have two creation myths for the area. One is that it is the smashed remains of the carved prow of a canoe that became the South Island. The other is that Kupe (the famed navigator and explorer) battled here with a giant octopus whose writhing tentacles pulled and gouged the land into the shape it holds today.

Matai Bay, Tennyson Inlet

Much of the land has been logged and is now farmland or forestry, but DOC administers a patchwork of around 50,000 hectares of reserves with regenerating bush and some large areas of untouched beech/podocarp forest (eg. Matai Bay, pictured). There are also several restricted islands which are important refuges for endangered wildlife such as tuatara (the sole remaining representative of an ancient order of reptiles) and kakapo (nocturnal ground parrot).

The town of Picton, near the head of the Queen Charlotte Sound, is where the Cook Strait ferries to and from Wellington dock and consequently has a higher than average concentration of restaurants, accomodation and tourism operators. Havelock, at the head of the Pelorus Sound, is similar but quieter. There are a great many lodges, backpackers’ hostels and campsites thoughout the sounds, many accessible only by sea, and a number of companies which run boating, fishing, diving, kayaking and tramping options.

Tennyson Inlet

The two most popular walks are the 67 kilometre Queen Charlotte track, which runs spectacularly along a ridgeline for much of its length, and the 23 kilometre Nydia track on Pelorus Sound. Both of these have a mix of camping or privately operated lodge accomodation.

It’s also possible to spend days or even weeks kayaking around the sounds. The inner sounds area is comparatively sheltered from the open ocean of Cook Strait (though subject to strong localised winds), while the outer sounds are wilder in both weather and sea and bird-life.

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