Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Queen Charlotte & Marlborough Tramps
1
Queen Charlotte Track (
Click here
)
2
Nydia Track (
Click here
)
3
Pelorus Track (
Click here
)
4
Kaikoura Coast Track (
Click here
)
History
Maori knew the Marlborough area as Te Tau Ihu o Te Waka a Maui ('The Prow of Maui's
Canoe'). The region's many archaeological sites have revealed that
pa
(fortified villages)
and the sites surrounding them were not permanently occupied, and that the Maori were
highly mobile, moving with the seasons to harness different resources.
The first European to visit the Marlborough region was Abel Tasman, who spent five
days sheltering off the east coast of D'Urville Island in 1642, but never landed. It was to be
more than a century before the next European, James Cook, turned up, in January 1770.
Cook stayed 23 days and made four more visits over the next seven years to Ship Cove and
the stretch of water he named Queen Charlotte Sound. In 1827 the French navigator Jules
Dumont d'Urville discovered the narrow strait now known as French Pass, and his officers
named the island to the north in his honour. In the same year a whaling station was estab-
lished at Te Awaiti in Tory Channel, which brought about the first permanent European set-
tlement in the district.
In June 1840 Governor Hobson's envoy, Major Bunbury, arrived in the Marlborough
Sounds on the HMS
Herald
to gather Maori signatures for the Treaty of Waitangi. It was on
17 June, on the Sounds' Horahora Kakahu Island, that Bunbury proclaimed British sover-
eignty over the South Island.
Environment
The Marlborough region is diverse. Great swaths of its plains have been given over to agri-
culture, including the growing of grapes, for which it is renowned. It is also home to the fas-
cinating Molesworth Station, NZ's largest farm, managed by the Department of Conserva-
tion (DOC) in line with its notable ecological values.
The east coast around Kaikoura is famous for wildlife. Indeed, there are few places in the
world with so much to see: whales, dolphins, NZ fur seals, penguins, shearwaters, petrels
