Mrs. Deals’ sister is back! This time to share details about one of our favorite areas of New Zealand — the Marlborough Sounds. Located at the north-east tip of the South Island, the Marlborough Sounds is a popular summer destination for Kiwis and travelers alike. Areas of it are quite remote, and can only be accessed by boat, which makes The Sounds a quiet and peaceful region, especially the Queen Charlotte Track.
We decided to explore the Marlborough Sounds by hiking (“tramping” in Kiwi) the Queen Charlotte Track. This 70km track took us 4 days to complete and was a wonderful way to soak in the beautiful views. It is also the start of the South Island’s Te Araroa trail, so you are bound to meet interesting travelers with stories from their hiking. Below I summarize the three easy components needed to get you tramping the Queen Charlotte Track, and all for under $100 per person (excluding the cost of your camping gear).
Steps to book the Queen Charlotte Track:
1. Purchase your boat ticket
Since the beginning of the track, Ship Cove, is only accessible by boat, you need to purchase a water taxi ticket to drop you off and pick you up at the end. Additionally, you can hire the water taxi company to transfer your bags for you each day. We chose to utilize this service as it allowed us to pack our bags with a tent, cooking gear, food, sleeping bags, etc without having to carry it along the track each day. The company we used was Beachcomber Cruises for $60.
2. Decide on your Queen Charlotte Track accommodations
Our budget was tight, so we chose to camp each night along the track. Every camp ground was fabulous and clean with incredible views. The campgrounds we stayed on were:
- Night 1: Miner’s Camp. The cost for one night is $10 per person. (Recommend reserving ahead of time).
- Night 2: Camp Bay campsite. The cost is $5 per person. (No reservations- first come, first serve).
- Night 3: Cowshed campsite. The cost is $10 per person. (No reservations- first come, first serve).
If camping is not your thing, that is okay as there are many Queen Charlotte Track accommodations options. There are backpacker accommodations, homesteads for rent and luxury hotels along the way. The Queen Charlotte Track is absolutely a choose your own adventure and comfort level experience. So if you wanted to hike the trail but stay in hotels along the way, your itinerary may look like the following… Furneaux Lodge, Punga Cove Resort and Portage Resort. Note: I cannot speak to the pricing as I didn’t stay in these places. But I did visit them for a beer at the end of a long day hiking and can attest to how beautiful each one of these accommodations is!
Each one of these hotels also have restaurants that are open to the public so if you are camping and don’t want to carry your food/ cook, you could also visit them for dinner before returning to your campsite.
3. Purchase your Queen Charlotte Track Pass
A lot of the track is on private land and therefore you must purchase a pass in order to hike on it. The cost is $12 for a 5 day pass and can be purchased with your water taxi company, at the hotels along the track, or at the visitor centers in Picton.
Overall…
The Marlborough Sounds is an area we would love to return to one day. Probably to rent a house in the northern section and enjoy the quiet and views with local wine. 🙂 Be careful of the weka birds though- they’ll steal just about anything from your campsite!
In case you missed my prior posts my husband and I are backpacking for 5 months and our first stop was New Zealand: How to Travel Inexpensively Without Hotel Points; Staying in New Zealand’s Awesome Hut System
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Wife and I visited Sydney, Melbourne, Queenstown, and Auckland in November 2016. Queenstown and the surrounding area was, and still is, the most ridiculously beautiful place I’ve visited so far in my life. Going back to the South Island is something I hope to do at least once more in my lifetime.