Marlborough Sounds Maritime Park

The Marlborough Sounds, at the northeast corner of the South Island, are one of the most popular holiday areas in New Zealand - a beautiful landscape of drowned river valleys and intricate waterways, islands, beaches and wooded hills. This much indented coast with its many islets and inlets offers endless scope for boating enthusiasts, anglers and campers. On land, too, this is a quiet and peaceful area, for the roads running along the drowned valleys are narrow, winding, steep and usually not asphalted. Nowhere else in New Zealand is there as much sunshine: over 2000 hours per year.