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A Cook's tour

If Captain James Cook had a home away from home it was New Zealand's Queen Charlotte Sound, a place he visited five times, anchoring in Ship Cove for a total of about 100 days. He planted vegetable gardens, released pigs and goats and, on a small island in the sound, raised the Union flag to claim British sovereignty over New Zealand.

About the only thing Cook didn't do was build a holiday home, something generations of Kiwis have done in his stead. For if Cook was impressed by Queen Charlotte Sound's beauty, thousands after him have shared the sentiment. Holiday homes line its shores while walking tracks plough along the surrounding ridges and forest.

Like Cook, however, I have chosen to see Queen Charlotte Sound from the water, though my vessel is no Endeavour. For three days, my companion and I will paddle kayaks in the explorer's figurative wake. At times, it will seem as though Cook is actually with us, so much does his name dominate the area: there is a Cook monument, a Cook cairn and a Cook lookout, and bays called Endeavour and Resolution. At the sound's end is Cook Strait, separating North Island from South.

More even than traces of Cook, however, what I want to see is the sound's noted wildlife. Fur seals and bottlenose dolphins inhabit Queen Charlotte's waters and if I have to choose between Captain Cook and Flipper, I want to see the dolphin.

Our paddle begins in Picton, Queen Charlotte's major town, and we're escorted out by terns and shags flying ahead of us. Coming towards us is something infinitely larger: a cruise-ship-sized inter-island ferry about to dock in Picton. It grinds to within a few hundred metres of our kayaks then, to our relief, veers away and into Picton.

We cross the sound to Double Cove, which is noted for its own marine wildlife experience of sorts. For years, boats have brought visitors here to feed fish and we sacrifice a couple of our bread rolls for a private fish-feeding tour. We rip the bread into pieces and scatter them across the ocean, drawing the attention only of seagulls. The fish clearly are accustomed to a more substantial feed than these measly scraps.

Through the afternoon we meander around points and into coves, avoiding those that look like suburbs in the bush. Shags and fur seals bask atop rocks in the intermittent sun, ferries churn by and water taxis burst in and out of coves. We roll through their wakes, unnoticed by anything except the sea birds and, we hope vainly, dolphins. At the day's end, we paddle into camp at Ratimera Bay, one of the sound's true beauty spots.

With its long strip of sand, thick bush hanging off the headlands and green sea, it resembles the tropics, even if the weather doesn't.

Through the night, rain and wekas (flightless New Zealand birds with the scavenging habits of a stray dog) keep us awake but the dawn breaks beautifully still. Mist shrouds the water, slowly rising to reveal a clear blue sky and sea as smooth as ice. We paddle out from Ratimera Bay past a salmon farm, where a host of fur seals are all but drunk on this easy captive feed. Two seals fall in behind the kayaks, tailing us, nearly pushing us along with their noses.

From the direction of Picton we hear the fog horns of ship traffic but it's of no concern. We have passed the opening to the Tory Channel, where the ferries funnel away towards North Island. From here we will have the sound almost to ourselves. There will be the occasional water taxi but otherwise it's just seals, dive-bombing gannets and our two kayaks. It's our misty paradise.

In the calm of the morning we paddle side by side, enjoying the perfect reflections of each other's kayaks.

To our left we pass the opening to Endeavour Inlet, the greatest bite in the Queen Charlotte coast and, with it, the greatest concentration of resorts and holiday homes. You can pull in for a coffee, a meal or a bed, though it's a long paddle in so we continue past, cutting across the sound to Blumine Island. We lunch on the island's stony shores, watching the weather slowly close in. Blumine is to be the beginning of an island hop, taking us to Long Island, New Zealand's first marine reserve, and our ultimate goal, Motuara Island, where Cook raised the Union flag.

To reach Long Island we must cross 3km of open

water and, on cue, the wind whips up as we leave Blumine. With it comes the swell. Waves bounce against the kayaks, dousing us with spray. It's both the longest and quickest 3km of our journey.

On Motuara Island we beach the kayaks and climb to the island's summit, where a cairn marks Cook's grand moment in flag-raising. With it comes a view over the sound and across to North Island and a forest alive with birdsong. Once a sheep-grazed island, Motuara is now a bird sanctuary and a stronghold for kiwis, the endangered national icon. Little blue penguins nest beside the track and South Island robins hop about our feet like children.

Motuara Island is the virtual end of the sound - beyond it lies Cook Strait - and we will go no farther in this direction. Instead, we paddle across to Cannibal Cove and our final camp. Far beyond any holiday homes or the reach of water taxis, this beautiful cove is Queen Charlotte's most remote campsite, set in the hollow of two mountains. At night, the glow of New Zealand's capital, Wellington, lights the sky to the north as waves flop down just metres from where we sleep.

The next morning we paddle back to Ship Cove, Cook's original holiday pad, now dominated by an elephantine monument celebrating his stay. The morning is chilly and it seems only more so when a little penguin skims between the kayaks. When we left Picton 48 hours ago we planned to finish at Ship Cove, the most fitting end to our Cook's tour. But the explorer has been little more than a side-

light to nature and we paddle on, content to linger in these beautiful coves. Between here and Picton we can stop at any number of points and return to town on a water taxi.

Eventually we turn into Endeavour Inlet, followed by the seals that have been our regular companions. The company we'd hoped for - dolphins - has not appeared, though even as I voice my regret there comes the sight of dolphins ahead in the distance. Paddling harder, we are suddenly among the sleek creatures, which leap about like popcorn, playing around us yet seemingly oblivious to us. Two dolphins appear at the nose of my kayak, diving to pass like missiles below me.

Soon, a water taxi blasts by and the dolphins abandon us, happier to play in the turbulence of the boat's wash. Together, they head out into the sound as we leave it.

Getting there: Air New Zealand (www.airnewzealand.com.hk) flies from Hong Kong to Wellington via Auckland. Picton can be reached from Wellington on the Interislander Ferry (www.interislander.co.nz). Kayaks can be hired from Marlborough Sounds Adventure (www.marlboroughsounds.co.nz), on Picton dock; rental costs about NZ$40 (HK$210) a day. Guided kayak tours of Queen Charlotte Sound are available with the company and with Sea Kayaking Adventure Tours (www.nzseakayaking.com), in nearby Anakiwa.

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