Nelson and Marlborough: sunshine, sounds and sauvignon

Marlborough by cellar door

Marlborough makes roughly three quarters of all New Zealand wine, and the flat valley floor around Renwick is made for tasting by bicycle: dozens of cellar doors sit within a few kilometres of each other, including names you will recognise from home shelves and small family rooms you will not. Rent a bike in Renwick or join a guided van tour if nobody wants to be the sober driver. Two tips: book lunch at a winery restaurant ahead in summer, and taste the local pinot noir too, which insiders rate as the valley’s quiet second act.

The Sounds

• Queen Charlotte Sound from Picton: the mail boat cruise delivers post to isolated jetties and passengers to a slower century; kayaks and water taxis open the same water at your own pace.
• The Queen Charlotte Track: 70 km of ridgeline and bays walkable in sections, with water taxis moving your bags between lodges. The civilised multi-day walk for people who like a bed and a wine list.
• Havelock: the self-declared green-shell mussel capital of the world, where the chowder is the argument and the argument is convincing.

Nelson side

Nelson claims the country’s highest sunshine hours most years and spends them well: a proud arts and crafts scene, the Saturday market, craft breweries that predate the craft beer boom, and beaches at Tahunanui and Rabbit Island. It is also the doorstep of Abel Tasman National Park, an hour away, which is reason enough to sleep here. Pair the whole top-of-the-south with the Cook Strait ferry crossing and you have the most underrated 48 hours in the South Island.

Getting here, and the train along the coast

Picton is three and a half hours from Wellington by ferry, and the Coastal Pacific train runs Picton to Christchurch along the Kaikoura coast every afternoon from 1 September to 30 April, which turns the transit day south into the best day of the trip. Nelson is an hour and three quarters from Blenheim over the Whangamoa hills. Two nights in Blenheim or Renwick for the wine and two in Nelson for the park is the top of the South done properly; one night in Picton on the way through is the version everyone regrets. The 14 day South Island circuit gives it days three to five.

Nelson itself is more than the gateway. The Saturday market at Montgomery Square is the best in the South Island for food, the beach at Tahunanui is a real one, and the city sits at the geographic centre of the country, which it marks with a short walk to a monument on the hill above. Give it the Saturday if the dates allow, and the park on the Sunday.

The airport at Nelson has direct flights from Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, which makes the region a clean start or finish for a South Island loop rather than only a stop on the way through.