Base Your Marlborough Sounds Stay
at Sequoia Lodge Backpackers Picton

The “101 Must-Do’s For Kiwis” list rates maritime wilderness pursuits in Marlborough Sounds as a sea lover’s sanctuary and recommends the port of Picton, New Zealand as an exploration base.

Book your hostel reservation here for New Zealand

The seaside location offers eco-tours to view rare birds, dolphins, penguins, and seals; a well known bird sanctuary with rare South Island robins on Motuara Island; historic Ship’s Cove; and the chance to savor the region’s famous greenshell at a local café or more up close and personal on the Greenshell Mussel Cruise.

The tour explains how mussels are grown and harvestsed and features plucked samples straight from the sea, washed down with equally famous Sauvignon Blanc wine from the Marlborough grape growing region.

Marlborough’s cool, long ripening season produces superb Sauvignon Blanc and other quality varietals including Gewurztraminer, Pino Gris, Chardonnay, and award-winning Pinot Noir. Wineries offer tours at over forty cellars.

To accompany great wines, Marlborough has a thriving café culture with award winning restaurants that feature locally prepared game and lamb plus fresh oysters, snapper, scallops, salmon, and of course, greenshell mussels. There are plenty of exquisite New Zealand food and drink varieties to try!

In Picton, boating and yachting, scuba diving, fishing, biking, and hiking are popular activities. The town is a convenient hub for exploring beautiful Marlborough Sounds. A great place to base your stay is Sequoia Lodge Backpackers, a family run hostel centrally located away from the noise and commotion of the port.

Sequoia Lodge Backpackers Picton is a small lodging accommodation with a wide range of doubles and twins with ensuites, private entrances, motel style units, dorms, and standard doubles.

It’s a bed and breakfast lodge offering free winter breakfast including homemade bread and fresh coffee. Other winter specials include hot chocolate pudding and ice cream, homemade soup, and popcorn accompanied by latest release movies.

Owners of the New Zealand backpackers also run Tasman Bay Backpackers in Nelson, and they like to think of their hostels as comfortable, friendly places where you might enjoy a glass of wine or beer, or coffee in a café atmosphere.

Sequoia Lodge Backpackers also offers a hot outdoor spa pool, hammocks, log fireplace, movie theater with Sky TV for viewing sports and movies, free bikes, cheap fast internet, free local and cheap international phone calls (no phone card surcharges), and free shuttles to the nearby ferry.

Lonely Planet calls Sequoia Lodge Backpackers a “high quality, well run place” and Rough Guide 2006 names it “the pick of the hostels in Picton.” Come and enjoy a part of your New Zealand vacation there!