Getting Oriented

Getting Oriented

A long narrow plain, broken by several mountainous areas, stretches from the Marlborough Sounds down the eastern coast of the upper South Island; State Highway 1 runs along this plain, going through Blenheim and Kaikoura on its way down to Canterbury. To the west, a series of high ranges separates Blenheim and Nelson. The side roads up into the Marlborough Sounds are slow and winding and often unpaved, so the best way to explore is often by boat from either Picton or Havelock. South of Nelson and along the West Coast, the country becomes very mountainous. The series of high passes and long river gorges is broken only by small settlements. Much of this area is beautiful parkland, a great buildup to the glaciers and mountains in the South Westland World Heritage Area.

Marlborough & Kaikoura. Marlborough is all about vineyards, wide shingle riverbeds, and the sheltered waterways of the Marlborough Sounds. Kaikoura, meanwhile, is a rocky strip of boisterous Pacific coastline where sperm whales breach just off shore and snowy mountains drop almost to the sea.

Nelson & the Northwest. The area starts with the curving sheltered bays of the Abel Tasman coast and the wide expanse of Tasman Bay. A little inland the economic heart of the region beats with rich farming and the major towns. But from this mellow center the countryside rises into layer after dramatic layer of wild mountains.

The West Coast. It starts in the north around Karamea as a warm, fertile coastal plain where avocados and tamarillos grow alongside the thick native rain forest. Reaching south through Greymouth and Hokitika, the strip of cultivated land narrows. Down south at the glaciers the soaring peaks of the Southern Alps run almost to the sea as the countryside becomes the wilderness of the South Westland World Heritage Area.