Queen Charlotte Track Cruise & Self Guided Hike From Picton

The Queen Charlotte Track extends 71 kilometres through a landscape shaped by drowned river valleys, where postglacial sea level rise carved ridgelines into headlands and flooded tributaries into deep bays. European surveyors charted these waterways in the 1820s, but Māori navigator Kupe is said to have passed through Queen Charlotte Sound during his exploration of Te Waipounamu eight centuries earlier. By the 1970s the route linked historic logging sites and pastoral stations, and in 1995 the Department of Conservation formalised public access across private land, securing a continuous coastal corridor that requires a daily conservation pass for anyone walking the inland ridges. Today the track is one of New Zealand's Great Rides, though it remains a walking route rather than a cycled thoroughfare on most sections. Ship Cove, the northern terminus where Captain Cook anchored HMS Resolution five times between 1770 and 1777, sits 27 water kilometres from Picton. Morning water taxis depart the Picton foreshore between 8:00 and 10:00, reaching the cove in 35 to 45 minutes depending on sea state. The single-day land access fee of 20 NZD applies to the privately owned sections between Anakiwa and Kenepuru Saddle, collected at departure or paid online. Hikers commonly walk the initial Ship Cove to Furneaux Lodge segment, a 12-kilometre ridgetop traverse that descends through beech forest and passes Antimony Mine ruins before reaching Endeavour Inlet. The track's elevation profile is modest by alpine standards — the highest point sits at 421 metres above sea level — but cumulative ascent over long distances tests stamina. Native rimu and podocarp forests dominate the shadier inland slopes, while mānuka and regenerating scrub occupy exposed ridges. Bellbird calls and tui song mark dawn and dusk. The Marlborough Sounds mail boat service, operating since 1904, still delivers parcels to waterfront properties unreachable by road, and several operators now combine mail runs with passenger cruises, offering a functional glimpse of the region's geography. Independent walkers arrange return water taxis from Furneaux Lodge, Resolution Bay, or other access points, completing partial traverses in four to six hours. The full 71-kilometre route demands three to five days and requires pre-booked lodge or campsite accommodation, as the track passes no roadheads after Ship Cove until reaching Anakiwa at the southern terminus.