Marlborough broadly encompasses three distinct regions, as you appreciate when you reach the South Island by ferry, cruise through the Marlborough Sounds, and then drive south from the terminal at Picton. The vast, convoluted and scenic waterways of the Sounds offers an altogether different experience from the river plains – mostly planted in grapes – and the arid hills of the Blenheim district, and both differ markedly from Kaikoura , crammed between mountains and the rocky margins of the sea.

The entire region is rich in history. Many sites have associations with the turbulent inter-tribal warfare of pre-European Maori history, not to mention the site of one of the most significant early conflicts between Maori and European settlers. The site of the first permanent European settlement lies in the outer regions of the Marlborough Sounds, as do ‘Kupe’s footprints’, supposed to be traces left by the first Polynesian explorer to visit Aotearoa. This heritage is preserved in a number of fine museums, from the the Edwin Fox on Picton’s foreshore to the Marlborough Museum at Brayshaw Park in Blenheim and the amazing Omaka Aviation museum just outside it.

Once a service hub to the struggling sheep farmers of the surrounding district, Blenheim has, over the last 25 years, become the capital of the booming Marlborough winegrowing region.