Marlborough

Marlborough occupies the northeastern corner of the South Island, where two dramatically different coastal environments coexist within the same administrative region. The Marlborough Sounds — Queen Charlotte Sound, Pelorus Sound, and the outer sounds — are a drowned river valley complex of 1500 kilometres of shoreline, sheltered inlets, and forested ridges reaching into the water. Spring tidal range in the inner sounds is 3.5 to 4.5 metres with strong tidal currents through the narrow passages. The ferry crossing between Picton (in Queen Charlotte Sound) and Wellington crosses Cook Strait — notoriously rough when the prevailing southwesterlies funnel through the strait, one of the windiest sea lanes in the world. Kaikōura, on the open east coast 130 kilometres south of Picton, sits on a narrow coastal shelf above a submarine canyon that brings deep-ocean whale habitat close to shore. Sperm whales feed here year-round; dusky dolphins are present in large pods; New Zealand fur seals haul out on the rocky platforms at the town's Seal Colony. The seismic event of November 2016 (7.8 magnitude Kaikōura earthquake) raised the coastal shelf by as much as 6 metres, permanently altering the intertidal landscape. For authoritative New Zealand tide data, consult LINZ (Land Information New Zealand).