Scenic and wildlife cruises
Out into Queen Charlotte Sound by boat — the mail run, Motuara Island, dolphins and seals.
On the water
Picton is a harbour first
Most of the Marlborough Sounds has no road. The boats that leave the foreshore — cruises, kayaks, water taxis, charters — are how you get to it.
Photo: Oren Rozen / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Ways to get out there
Operators listed alphabetically within each; confirmed trading from their own sites on the dates shown on each page.
Sea kayaking
Guided half-days to multi-day trips, or hire a kayak and go, from the London Quay waterfront.
Water taxis
Everyday transport in the Sounds — to the track, to the lodges, to bays with no road.
Fishing charters
Skippered fishing trips out of Picton and Waikawa, gear supplied.
Sailing charters
Bareboat or skippered yachts from Waikawa Marina into the Sounds.
Diving and the Mikhail Lermontov
The largest diveable cruise-ship wreck in New Zealand waters lies in Port Gore, off the outer Sounds.
The one to do
Motuara Island
DOC-managed scenic reserve about 32 km from Picton, reached by scenic cruise, private boat or kayak. Rats were eradicated in 1992; the island is now a rearing site for rowi kiwi chicks, and where Cook proclaimed British sovereignty over the South Island in 1770.
Read morePlaces you reach by water
Beaches, bays, the sanctuary and Cook's cove.
Motuara Island
A predator-free bird sanctuary in the outer sound — saddleback, robin and kākāriki — with a lookout tower on its 128 m summit.
Kaipūpū Sanctuary
A fenced, predator-controlled peninsula ten minutes from the foreshore by water taxi, with a 2.7 km loop track.
Meretoto / Ship Cove
Cook's anchorage on all three voyages, New Zealand's first historic reserve, and the start of the Queen Charlotte Track.
Whatamango Bay
A DOC campsite bay 10 km east of Picton on Port Underwood Road — about 15 minutes from the ferry.
Momorangi Bay
A fully serviced DOC campsite on Queen Charlotte Drive, 25 minutes from Picton, with a playground on the reserve.
Ngakuta Bay
A calm, bush-fringed bay with a beach on Queen Charlotte Drive, on the Link Pathway.
Shelly Beach
The small beach ten minutes' walk from the foreshore, at the edge of Victoria Domain.
Bob's Bay
A bush-fringed bay you can only walk to — half an hour from Shelly Beach.
Waikawa Bay
The next bay north of Picton, home to Waikawa Marina and the Te Ātiawa community that moved here in 1850.
Before you go on the water
DOC's advice for the Sounds is worth taking at face value: conditions change quickly, so check a marine forecast before any water-taxi trip or kayak outing. If you meet seals, dolphins or other marine mammals, the rules under the Marine Mammals Protection Regulations require staying at least 20 m from seals and sea lions, never touching them, and not swimming with a dolphin pod that includes juveniles.
Sources: DOC Queen Charlotte Track safety notes; DOC marine mammal rules; operator websites (listed on each activity page). Full list on the sources page.