Pelorus Sound

Pelorus Sound / Te Hoiere
Te Hoiere (Māori)
Moetapu Bay in inner Pelorus Sound / Te Hoiere
Pelorus Sound / Te Hoiere Pelorus Sound is the largest of the Marlborough Sounds Show map of Marlborough Sounds Pelorus Sound / Te Hoiere Pelorus Sound / Te Hoiere (New Zealand) Show map of New Zealand
Location	Marlborough Region, New Zealand
Coordinates	41°10′07″S 173°52′07″E / 41.168575°S 173.868542°E / -41.168575; 173.868542
Type	Ria
Part of	Marlborough Sounds
Max. length	55 kilometres (34 mi)
Shore length1	380 kilometres (240 mi)
Islands	Maud Island
Settlements	Havelock
1 Shore length is not a well-defined measure.

Pelorus Sound (Māori: Te Hoiere; officially Pelorus Sound / Te Hoiere) is the largest of the sounds which make up the Marlborough Sounds at the north of the South Island, New Zealand.

The Marlborough Sounds is a system of drowned river valleys, which were formed after the last ice age around 10,000 years ago. Pelorus Sound has a main channel which winds south from Cook Strait for about 55 kilometres (34 mi), between steeply sloped wooded hills, until it reaches its head close to the Havelock township. Pelorus has several major arms, notably Tennyson Inlet, Tawhitinui Reach, Kenepuru Sound and the Crail/Clova/Beatrix Bay complex. Its shoreline runs for 380 kilometres (240 mi).^[1]

Industry in Pelorus Sounds is based around marine farming, pine forestry and some tourism. Private holiday homes are becoming more common. Most of the settled places are hard to reach overland, and are serviced by the Pelorus Express, a mail boat which does three different weekly runs from Havelock.^[2]

Maud Island, also called Te Hoiere in the Māori language, is a 310-hectare (770-acre) island in the Pelorus Sounds. It is an important nature reserve to which only scientists and conservationists have access.^[3]