GO NZ: Day tripping to Motuara Island in the Marlborough Sounds

Little Motuara Island, visible from Ship Cove, is where Captain James Cook proclaimed British sovereignty over the South Island in 1770. Photo / MarlboroughNZ; Mike Heydon

It's said that when Captain James Cook travelled through the Marlborough Sounds in 1770, he had to anchor far offshore to hold a conversation because the sound of birdsong was so loud. Such was the density and variety of native birdlife. now, 250 years of environmental degradation later, the soundscape is very different. Travellers camping in the Marlborough Sounds will probably still be awoken by a charming dawn chorus (charming if they don't want to sleep in, that is), but they won't have any problem holding a conversation at any other time of day.

Motuara Island's birds have flourished since rats and other pests were eradicated from the island in the 1990s. Photo / MarlboroughNZ

Although the Marlborough Sounds don't enjoy the protected national park status of many other parts of the South Island, small areas are administered by the Department of Conservation. One such is Motuara Island, near the entrance to Queen Charlotte Sound and across the water from Ship Cove, where many trampers start the Queen Charlotte Track. At Ship Cove is the Cook Monument, marking where Māori and Europeans first had sustained contact through Cook's visits here in the 1770s. But little Motuara Island, visible from Ship Cove, is arguably even more significant as it's where Cook proclaimed British sovereignty over the South Island in 1770.

Nowadays, Motuara Island is an important DoC-run bird habitat. It's used as a nursery for rowi kiwi, a severely threatened species native to the area around Franz Josef, who are reared here and then returned to the wild once they're big enough to defend themselves against predators. Motuara has also been important in the recovery of the South Island saddleback. Just 36 of the birds were rescued from the brink of extinction in the 1960s, and the descendant population was transferred to Motuara in 2009. There are also populations of South Island robins, yellow-crowned parakeets and the Maud Island frog, from a nearby island in Pelorus Sound. Unlike Maud Island though, which is a scientific reserve and requires a permit to visit, day visitors are welcome on Motuara Island.

Unless you have your own boat, logistically the easiest way of visiting Motuara Island is on a tour from Picton. E-ko Wildlife Tours run a combined half-day Motuara Island and dolphin-watching tour on a small vessel. After a picture-perfect dolphin-watching experience in the Bay of Islands, my family joined this tour in the Marlborough Sounds mostly for the chance to visit the island. If we saw dolphins on the way then great, but we thought that itch had been scratched.

E-ko Wildlife Tours run a combined half-day Motuara Island and dolphin-watching tour on a small vessel departing Picton. Photo / MarlboroughNZ

After berthing on the southwestern side of the island (for a maximum of two hours, the prominent signs warn, and only during the daylight), a well-formed uphill track leads about 800m through the bush to the summit of the island at 128m. It's an easy half-hour walk through naturally regenerated bush. On a clear day, the North Island could be seen from here, but we visited during an odd early summer heatwave, all 30C and thick humidity. We could only see as far as Long Island, just southeast of Motuara, and the Motuara Pā, a skinny finger of land protruding from the southeast of the island. Cook recorded a large settlement at this pā in 1770, and it was these Māori who first welcomed him ashore. He noted the large quantities of dried fish his men bought from the inhabitants.

The monument marking the spot where Cook, "in the presence of the native chief of the island, raised the British flag, took possession of the mainland in the name of King George III, and named the inlet Queen Charlotte Sound after the king's consort", is a small, unremarkable cairn that you could almost walk straight past without noticing. Especially if you're keeping your eyes and ears open for the island's birds, which have flourished since rats and other pests were eradicated from the island in the 1990s.

Keep an eye out for dusky dolphins flipping out of the water and fully leaping into the air. Photo / 123rf

On the return journey to Picton we had given up on seeing dolphins, content with our walk on the island and the sight of seals and shags covering every rocky islet within view. But as we entered the more sheltered waters deeper into the sound, one of the boat's crew spotted something. The captain turned in that direction. We came to a silent float and the odd splash of fin or tail could be seen. This turned into a clearer sight of a dolphin flipping a body part out of the water, and then into many dolphins fully leaping into the air. My 2-year-old daughter, on being told to look at the dolphins, kept shouting "Shark! Shark!" to the amusement of everyone on board. But they were dusky dolphins, with black tops and lighter underbellies. Smaller and a different colour to the bottlenose dolphins we'd seen in the Bay of Islands, they may as well have been a totally different animal. It turns out you can never take too many dolphin-watching tours.

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