Cloudy Bay

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Location of Cloudy Bay

Cloudy Bay is located at the northeast of New Zealand's South Island, to the south of the Marlborough Sounds. The area lends its name to one of the best known New World white wines (Cloudy Bay Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc) although the grapes used in production of that wine are grown in the Marlborough wine region further inland.

The bay faces Cook Strait, stretching north-south over a distance of 30 kilometres from the southern extremity of the Marlborough Sounds (Port Underwood) to White Bluffs. Along its length is the delta of the Wairau River, which reaches the sea at two points. The southern of these forms an entrance to the Big Lagoon, just to the north of White Bluffs.

Archaeological excavations at Wairau Bar indicate that Māori were living there in the 'moa-hunter' period (c.AD1000-1300).^[1] Cloudy Bay was named by Captain James Cook on 7 February 1770.^[2] Sealers first visited about 1826 and set up stations at Port Underwood, the deep inlet at the north of the bay.^[2] They were followed by whalers with John Guard setting up a whaling station at Port Underwood in 1828.^[2] By 1840 there were approximately 150 Europeans in the area^[2], probably the largest concentration in the South Island at that time. On 17 June 1840 the Treaty of Waitangi was signed by South Island chiefs at Horahora-Kakahu Island, just off-shore from Port Underwood.^[3]