Marlborough - Activity Highlights

Marlborough | Regional Information | Activity Highlights | Scenic Highlights | History

Marlborough's year-round sunshine and diverse landscape are conducive to an easy-going lifestyle and an excellent range of recreational activities.

Featured Tourism Operators in Marlborough

Marlborough Activity Highlights Overview

The Marlborough region is a place where you can pick a theme and follow it through. Focus your itinerary on outdoor adventures, vineyards and wineries, arts and crafts, history and gardens or marine pursuits. Better still, mix them up and experience a little of everything this beautiful region has to offer.

Savour the Flavours of Wine Country

Image Source: Tourism New Zealand. Biking a wine trail in Marlborough, New Zealand

Biking Wine Trail, Marlborough
Photographer: Ian Trafford
(www.iantraffordphotos.com)

Blenheim is the base to begin your explorations of Marlborough's wineries.

Tour the wineries and breweries with a guide, so you won't have to worry about driving
Lunch alfresco amongst the vines - many wineries have a cafe or restaurant
Follow the art and craft trail to see a thriving creative community in action
Visit a distillery and see how it's done - taste locally produced fruit brandies and liqueurs

Find a Fresh Country Adventure

There's more to Marlborough than wine—see what else happens in this beautiful region.

Image Source: Tourism New Zealand. Kayaking with orca in Marlborough Sounds, Marlborough, New Zealand

Kayaking With Orca, Marlborough
Photographer: Ian Trafford
(www.iantraffordphotos.com)

Enjoy a high country horse trekking trip
Explore private gardens open for viewing
Local museums and restored heritage homes illustrate the early history of the region
Find out about fly-fishing and hunting tours
In summer you can do a guided tour of Molesworth Station, a high country farm. View the grandeur and beauty of the mountainous high country
Take a walk in Wither Hills Farm Park - great views over Marlborough and the Wairau Plains
Visit an orchard for seasonal fruit, in particular Marlborough cherries (December - January)
Art galleries offer ever changing exhibitions of local and national artists
Take a river cruise along the traditional trading route used by the early settlers
Visit the Alpaca and Llamas just out of Koromiko

Soak Up the Scenery of the Sounds

A sound is a valley drowned by the sea—forest and water merge to create a dramatic coastal landscape.

Image Source: Tourism New Zealand. Picton in Marlborough

Picton, Marlborough
Photographer: Ivor Wilkins
(ivorw@xtra.co.nz)

Arrive by sea through the glorious maze of deep coves and bays of Queen Charlotte Sound. Fine restaurants and accommodation lodges beckon
Explore the town of Picton. European settlement of this area began in the 1840s and many of the early buildings still grace the waterfront
Go on a sea kayaking safari - guide yourself or join a group
Walk the Queen Charlotte Track (three - four days) - a popular walkway with many entry and exit points and numerous top class resorts and accommodation providers along its length
Visit the Edwin Fox, a maritime artifact, situated in Picton
Dive shipwrecks - the Russian cruise liner Mikhail Lermontov and the wreck of the Hippalos, a 120-year old wooden barque
Charter a sailing boat and cruise the Sounds - skippers can be hired

View further information on our Natural Phenomena Highlights Marlborough Sounds page.

Adventures that Begin in Havelock

The charming seaport of Havelock was once a thriving gold-mining town. Today it's a base for further explorations of the sounds.

Try the local delicacy - green-lipped mussels
Visit the historic gold mining township of Canvastown, the scenic splendour of Pelorus Bridge Reserve and rural Rai Valley
Get on board a charter boat and go snapper fishing
Follow the Nydia Track to Tennyson Inlet - takes two days
Visit the tiny settlement of French Pass and its offshore island d'Urville
Do the Pelorus Bridge Walks, 18 kilometres west of Havelock