The Marlborough Sounds

Hey guys,

Like I said in the previous blog, we really didn’t have any shape of a plan (and now that I mention it we still don’t really...) so we decided to head back into Picton and check it out. We got the idea to check out some of the more remote areas of the Marlborough Sounds. The Sounds are this huge area of, well, sounds. This map might do a better job of describing what I am trying to say.

There is a huge amount of coastline, 20% of New Zealand’s total to be exact and it’s gorgeous.

The first place we stayed at was called Elaine Bay. There was a great little walk right by our campsite. Here are some pics.

We walked down here and Jared did some fishing while I read. I also fished for a bit but then caught a fish and realized I didn’t really want to actually touch the fish so I stopped. I really have to be in the right mood to go fishing and that day I just wasn’t feeling it. Not so much for Jared let me tell you. He has been doing  a copious amount of fishing. But I digress...

From there we went further north to French Pass. More beautiful coastline, more fishing for Jared. We also saw lots of weka’s, which are a native flightless bird in NZ. They are crazy little things, one of them jumped into our van! They will scavenge anything, as we learned the next morning when they had torn our garbage all over the campsite. Naughty wekas.....

We headed back to Havelock and took in a green mussel cruise.  The Marlborough Sounds are perfect for mussel farming so there are farms everywhere. Our tour guide took us out to one and showed us how it all works. Basically they get the tiny microscopic mussels from Northland when they are stuck in the seaweed and ship them down here. They stuff them in between a rope suspended in the water and pantyhose made of hemp until they are big enough to make their own attachments to the rope. By then the pantyhose has disintegrated in the saltwater and they grow to be 2 years old before getting harvested. Apparently the mussel harvester is this huge boat that pulls the lines up and scrapes the mussels off the lines. We didn’t get to see that part. We also sampled some green mussels on board paired with a lovely Sauvignon Blanc from the Marlborough Region....as you do.

A mussel farm

Our tour guide pulling up a rope to show the growing mussels

That night we stayed at a place that was the site of a big gold rush in the mid 1800’s. There isn't much gold left any more but people still try to pan for tiny bits. Jared got this pic of a possum in a tree:

The next morning we headed East, in the direction of Nelson. We didn't really know what the heck we were doing but knew we wanted to go that way. More on that in the next blog!