Marlborough not very lite

TOURING NEW ZEALAND: It is with aching arms and legs that I write this from the Bay of Many Coves in the Marlborough Sounds. Not that I'm complaining of course. What better way to get some early morning exercise than to take a sea kayak out on the calm blue green waters of the Sounds. After a few cloudy days, it's blue skies and sunshine and after two and a half weeks of traveling, London and work seem very far away.

Around 40 minutes of paddling had us on the other side of the bay where we stopped off for a brief rest in one of the little coves. On this side of the bay, except for a few people in boats far away out on the water, there isn't another soul in sight. If there is anyone home in the few baches that are dotted randomly on top of the cliffs, they are keeping very quiet. All we hear is the call of seabirds and the constant buzz of cicadas, insects which are a bit like large grasshoppers. It feels like heaven.

Although most of the Sounds are accessible by road, our accommodation at the Bay of Many Coves Resort is reachable only by boat. That is unless we fancied doing it on foot which would have taken around two days from Picton, our starting point in the South Island.

With no roads, building the small upmarket resort with its separate chalets that stand on stilts on the hillside looks like quite a feat. Built in 2003, as well as being a holiday destination, it also acts as a 'dairy' (New Zealand speak for corner shop) for the people who live or holiday in the remote baches. Needless to say, everyone has their own boat here, otherwise they would be marooned.

"Everything had to come here by barge - beds, the floors, the walls, the cookers, tables and chairs - everything," says Pippa, an English girl who has worked here almost since it has opened. "Once the chalets and main buildings were built and up and running, it got a lot easier. Most of our supplies now get dropped off by water taxi at the same time that guests are dropped off and picked up."

Not everything has to come by water taxi though. The green lipped mussels that I had for lunch are farmed in the water a short distance away. And delicious they were too, washed down with a glass of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc.

But before our water taxi arrived to get us on our way again, we had time for the 45 minute climb up the mountain to a point called the Lookout. This is where the leg ache comes in as the steep walking track seemed more suited to goats than humans. Once we got to the Lookout though at aroundf 388 metres up the mountain, it was all worth it for the stunning view we had of the Sounds. Space, mountains, sea and sky all around.

* Mary Salmon is exploring the South Island with Bridge and Wickers (www.bridgeandwickers.com) which can arrange tailor made itineraries in New Zealand.