STUFF
We re deep in the Marlborough Sounds and it s the last place I thought I d ever find a train carriage from the 1930s.
It’s a mail boat, so you expect bags of letters and packets, but the opened sack of sheep pellets? And the one of dog biscuits? They are a mystery – though not for long. The Pelorus Mail Boat sets out three days a week from the little town of Havelock, to cruise through the Marlborough Sounds delivering not just post, but much more besides, to the people who live tucked away in the bays along this convoluted coastline, some of them so remote that they have no road access at all.
The Croisilles: Marlborough s road least travelled
8 minutes to read
Elen Turner heads down a spectacular side road to the notorious French Pass
A relatively recent transplant to the Top of the South, I d seen the boats towed from Nelson turning off State Highway 6 in the Rai Valley every time I drove to and from Havelock for a mussel lunch. But it s hard to tell around here which turn-offs lead to private farmland and dead ends, and which to otherworldly beautiful road trips that are among the most scenic in New Zealand.
The Croisilles Harbour–French Pass Road is definitely the latter (with plenty of the former sprinkled in along the way, too). But because this is a detour from the highway, not a highway in itself as are other Must Do road trips in the South Island Haast Pass or the road to Mount Cook, for example to take it, you have to know it s there.
New Zealand s best swimming holes, beaches and outdoor pools to visit this summer
27 Dec, 2020 05:16 PM
8 minutes to read
By: Ewan McDonald
Summer is bliss. Or Bliss , if your coming-of-age memory is Th Dudes gig at the Soundshell.
It s the rosy beginning, burnt-orange middle and fading end of the golden weather, when life is a beach, a surf break, lakeshore, swimming hole, whitewater raft-ride, sit-down or stand-up paddle bay; when New Zealand becomes a country of sails.
Aotearoa has 15,000km of coastline, which means that each of us gets 3 metres to find a tree, spread out a towel and moor a gently defrosting chilly bin.