Picton is a town in the Marlborough region of New Zealand. It is close to the head of Queen Charlotte Sound near the north-east corner of the South Island. Picton connects the South Island to its northern counterpart by sea, the Interislander and Bluebridge ferrys both leave for Wellington on a regular basis.
One of the coves in the sound is Ships Cove and is a New Zealand Icon Heritage Site used by Captain Cook in the 1770′s to anchor his ship the Endeavour for provisioning and repair. Cook spent more time at Ships Cove than anywhere else on earth, other than his home town in England. The cove is much the same today as it was in 1770, when Cook first stepped onto it.
Marlborough Sounds breathtaking coastline is 1,500 kilometres – one fifth of New Zealand’s total coastline – a magical place for exploring bays, coves and inlets. We saw many privately owned speed and fishing boats and just itched to use one for a day, poking in and out with who knew what we would see. Found just the thing with a boat safari where we hired a two-passenger boat and a guide who knew the sounds like the back of his hand. He showed us his favorite bush clad hillsides and secluded sandy beaches. We were lucky, we had a private tour as no others had signed up for the journey. We made several stops to see the amazing scenery including a stop to look at a working mussel farm and how they harvest 60 tons of green lipped mussels every day (two years to grow one from start to finish), the virgin forests and and of course lots of photography.
The drive to/from the put in point is known as the Queen Charlotte Drive. The windy and wind swept road passes sleepy bays and overlooks distant islands. Magnificent views of the sounds can be had from many vantage points, including rainbows after a light rain shower.
