Where Is the Track?
The Queen Charlotte Track is located at the north eastern tip of New Zealand’s South Island.
It offers a unique blend of coastal walking, ridgetop views and stunning native bush as it winds its way through the iconic sunken river valleys of the Marlborough Sounds. You’ll need to stay in Picton, heart of the Marlborough Sounds, the night prior to the walk, a delightful seaside town where the interisland ferries come and go from Wellington.
Your walk starts with a morning water taxi ride to Ship Cove in the Outer Queen Charlotte Sound and finishes with a return water taxi 73.5km later from Anakiwa back to Picton. Ship Cove is an important historic place where the European navigator and explorer Captain James Cook made his base during his explorations of the South Pacific in the late 1700s. It is also an area of great significance for several local Maori tribes, the indigenous people of New Zealand.
How to get here
| Day | Getting To Picton | Approx. Times |
|---|---|---|
| Road | Picton to Blenheim | 30 mins |
| Picton to Nelson | 2 hrs | |
| Picton to Kaikoura | 3 hrs | |
| Blenheim to Christchurch | 4.5 hrs | |
| Ferry | The Interislander - Wellington to Picton | 3.5 hrs |
| Blue Bridge Ferries - Wellington to Picton | 3.5 hrs | |
| Air | Air New Zealand and Sounds Air operate daily into Marlborough Airport from Wellington | 20 mins |
| Train | Tranz Scenic Coastal Express: a daily train service from Christchurch to Picton | 5 hrs |