Collecting Seafood in Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand

I never thought I would ever collect my own seafood, let alone do it in New Zealand. Our first stop in New Zealand was Marlborough Sounds, an extensive area of bush-clad hills and beautiful blue bays.

Marlborough Sounds

We stayed at Hopewell, an extremely accommodating and wonderful lodge that I highly recommend. This lodge is very remote, and has both backpacker and private lodging. We had to drive 3 hours through the sounds on extremely windy roads just to get there. It's either that or a $300 round trip ferry ride.

View from our Room at Hopewell

We loved being so far away from everything and spent our time kayaking, hiking, and in the evening, collecting seafood for dinner.

There is an abundance of mussels, cockles, and oysters in the Marlborough Sounds. At low tide, CK and I would grab a bucket, put on some rubber boots, and collect whatever we fancied for dinner. It was one of the coolest experiences ever. We collected cockles, mussels, and oysters. All were fresh and slightly salty from the salt water.

Cockles, saltwater clams, are buried in the mud, so you have to dig for these suckers. I found the meat slightly sweeter than the clams I've had in the past. Out of everything we collected, the cockles were, surprisingly, my favorite.

Cockles in the Mud

Cockles

Oysters were the easiest to collect. There were so many of them it was unbelievable.

Collecting Oysters

Look, oysters galore. Yes, those are all oysters you see in the photo! And to think, back home, I would pay $4 for just one oyster.

Oysters

I found the mussels hardest to collect. Because the mussels tightly attach themselves to rocks with byssal threads, aka beards, you have to tug really hard. The beards cannot be removed until the mussels open up from cooking. New Zealand is known for their Greenshell mussels. As the name implies, the shells are bright green, and they are much larger and meatier than most mussels. Most were about 4 x 1.5 inches in size.

CK Collecting Mussels

We cooked the cockles and mussels by steaming them with fresh lemon juice. Hopewell had some lemon trees and all we had to do was pick them off the tree.

Steaming Cockles and Mussels

In order to eat the oysters, I had to learn how to shuck them on the spot. It was super fun once I got the hang of it. While shucking oysters, our gracious host, Mike, deep fried a few for us to try. They were wonderfully delicious. Never thought to deep fry oysters. We ate most of the oysters raw with lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper.

And finally, our feast. We met a friendly traveller from Germany and had dinner with her that evening.

Feast of Mussels, Oysters, and Cockles

Here are some photos from our kayaking outing. Look how blue the water is!

Kayaking in Kenepuru Sound

We stopped at a remote scenic reserve and enjoyed lunch with some Weka birds.

Ferndale Scenic Reserve

They were all over the island, and I admit, I was somewhat scared. I had no clue what they were, and they were not afraid of humans at all.

Weka Birds

I made CK eat his lunch with one paddle in his hand in case one attacked. They are flightless birds that are about the size of chickens. When I returned, I found out they were harmless...we had a good laugh about how scared we were.

Kayak Parked at Ferndale Scenic Reserve