Marlborough

Marlborough accommodation sits where the Sounds meet vineyard country, with baches and cottages around Picton, Havelock and Blenheim. Plenty of travellers only ever see this corner from a ferry deck. Staying puts the Queen Charlotte Track within a water taxi ride of Picton. Up the road, Havelock is a small port at the head of Pelorus Sound, where green-lipped mussels land straight off the boats.

Blenheim keeps cellar doors within cycling distance of town, and summers here run long, dry and settled, which is vintage weather in both senses.