Tracks & Walks
There are numerous tracks and walks throughout the Marlborough region suitable for all ages and levels of fitness.
Walks vary from a few minutes to a several hours.Walking tracks near Blenheim include the Wither Hills Farm Park, which offers a number of walking or mountain biking options. Once some elevation is achieved, there are some excellent views over Blenheim, the Wairau Plains and across Cloudy Bay toward Cook Strait.
Near Blenheim's town centre, the walk alongside the Taylor River is easily accessible and is ideal for a gentle and undemanding walk. A number of local landmarks may be encountered along the walk, including the ruins of one of the region's earliest flax mills and the recently completed Riverside Park.
Between Picton and Waikawa, Victoria Domain provides a network of tracks that offer views of the harbour and the Sounds. The Bob's Bay track (30 minutes return) is an easy walk that follows the coastline from Shelley Beach to Bob's Bay. For the more adventurous, the Snout Track (2 hours return) winds through native bush from the Snout Track car park to The Snout, overlooking Waikawa Bay.
40 minutes by car from Blenheim, The Pelorus Bridge Scenic Reserve offers visitors the opportunity to relax and enjoy refreshing forest and river scenery, in one of the last stands of river flat forest in Marlborough.
The Queen Charlotte Track is a unique partnership between the Department of Conservation, Marlborough District Council and private landowners.
Deep in the heart of the Marlborough Sounds, South Island, New Zealand, the Queen Charlotte Track stretches 70 km from the legendary Ship Cove to Anakiwa. The track is easier tramping track standard and is suitable for both walkers and mountain bike riders, taking 3-5 days to complete walking, or 2-3 days for mountain bikers.
View of the Kaikoura Ranges from the Kaikoura Peninsula walkway. The Kaikoura Peninsula Walkway is one of the most popular half-day tracks in New Zealand. The track forms a figure-eight loop along the cliff top and shoreline at the end of the peninsula, giving walkers the option of taking either one long loop or one of two shorter loops. The shoreline section of the walk is only accessible at low tide and passes near a New Zealand fur seal breeding colony.
The northern end of the track begins to the south of Kaikoura at the Point Kean car parking area at the eastern tip of the peninsula. The cliff-top walk climbs above the car park and crosses farmland at the top of the peninsula, with views down to the jagged coastline, and inland to the Kaikoura Ranges.
It's a Fact...
FRENCH PASS
D'Urville Island is separated from the mainland by the perilous French Pass, known to Maori as Te Aumiti, through which water passes at up to a fierce eight knots at each tide. Several treacherous whirlpools and surging eddies occur near this passage. French explorer Dumont d'Urville investigated the passage for several days in 1827, and subsequently damaged his ship, Astrolabe, passing through it.
D'Urville Island is separated from the mainland by the perilous French Pass, known to Maori as Te Aumiti, through which water passes at up to a fierce eight knots at each tide. Several treacherous whirlpools and surging eddies occur near this passage. French explorer Dumont d'Urville investigated the passage for several days in 1827, and subsequently damaged his ship, Astrolabe, passing through it.