New Zealand cuisine features fresh Pacific seafood, lamb, and dairy products with strong Maori and Pacific influences. Green-lipped mussels, Bluff oysters, crayfish, and blue cod are regional specialities. The hangi, a traditional Maori earth oven feast, is a cultural dining experience. The craft beer and wine scene is world-class, with Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc and Central Otago Pinot Noir among the finest globally. Farm-to-table dining and artisan food producers are abundant throughout both islands.

Alden Villa Picton

The Marlborough Lodge

Rutherford Hotel Nelson

Kaiteriteri Beachfront Holiday Park

The Marlborough Sounds and Nelson/Tasman region is home to one of the world's greatest wreck dives and some of New Zealand's most sheltered and diverse diving. The MS Mikhail Lermontov, a 155-metre Soviet cruise liner sunk in 1986, lies on her starboard side at 12 to 36 metres in the sheltered waters of Port Gore, offering colossal groupers, blue cod, dense jewel anemones, and extraordinary penetration opportunities for advanced divers. Beyond this legendary wreck, the sounds themselves provide a drowned valley landscape of kelp forests, calm clear waters, and abundant marine life. Long Island Marine Reserve in Queen Charlotte Sound offers excellent training and macro diving, while the Pinnacles off D'Urville Island deliver offshore excitement with blue maomao schools and seals. Pelorus Sound, which Jacques Cousteau described as a drowned valley, offers fiord-like diving with sponges, crayfish, and abundant fish. The Nelson/Tasman area adds the Abel Tasman National Park with Tonga Island Marine Reserve, seal encounters, and clear kelp forest diving. The combination of a world-class wreck, sheltered sounds, and national park diving makes this one of New Zealand's premier dive destinations.

Marlborough Sounds & Nelson/Tasman

Ferry from Wellington to Picton approximately 3 hours, or drive from Christchurch approximately 5 hours

Dive Sites in Marlborough Sounds & Nelson/Tasman