Place
Meretoto / Ship Cove
Cook's anchorage on all three voyages, New Zealand's first historic reserve, and the start of the Queen Charlotte Track.
Photo: Avenue / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
A DOC-managed cove in the outer sound with monuments to Cook and pouwhenua for Kupe and local iwi. No road in — water taxi or cruise from Picton.
At a glance
- Cost
- Water-taxi or cruise fare
- Getting there
- By sea only — water taxi or scenic cruise from Picton
- History
- Cook anchored here on all three voyages in the 1770s and spent more than half his total time in New Zealand at this cove (DOC); made New Zealand's first historic reserve in 1896
About Meretoto / Ship Cove
Ship Cove is the one place in New Zealand Captain Cook returned to on every voyage, and by DOC's reckoning he spent more than half his total time in the country anchored in this cove. It became New Zealand's first historic reserve in 1896 and holds monuments to Cook and pouwhenua representing Kupe and the local iwi. Most people see it as the drop-off for the Queen Charlotte Track, or as a stop on a cruise that also calls at Motuara Island across the water.
Know before you go
- No road access at all.
Photographs
Sources for this page
Location: OpenStreetMap contributors via Nominatim (Meretoto / Ship Cove; feature).
Facts on this page were checked against the sources listed on 5 Sep 2026.
Nearby
Straight-line distances from Meretoto / Ship Cove.
Related
Queen Charlotte Track
73.5 km of ridgeline and bay from Meretoto / Ship Cove to Anakiwa — walked in 3–5 days, ridden in 2–3, or sampled in a day by water taxi.
Motuara Island
A predator-free bird sanctuary in the outer sound — saddleback, robin and kākāriki — with a lookout tower on its 128 m summit.
Water taxis
Everyday transport in the Sounds — to the track, to the lodges, to bays with no road.