★ Summer in New Zealand - The Marlborough Sounds

Summer in New Zealand - The Marlborough Sounds

The landscape of the Marlborough Sounds in the very north of New Zealand's South Island has a brittle charm. A lonely area, deserted, with humpbacked green hills, in between fjords, islands, cliffs. There are only a few villages + hermits hiding in the Marlborough Sounds.

Green coastline + turquoise waters: the Marlborough Sounds in New Zealand: Like Wendy Gamble. The trapper hunts possums and sells their fur. Or Julie + Dale. The two Australians once had a construction business in Sydney. After the economic crisis and the company's bankruptcy, they moved here. The couple now lives in a small cottage with a gorgeous view of the bay and makes tiles from the shells of the abalone shell. The two are happy out here, and the shell tile business is humming.

Out and about with the shell inspectors: But the most famous mussel in the Marlborough Sounds is the green-lipped mussel. It is a delicacy that only grows in New Zealand. Every day Bill + Dick, two mussel inspectors, are on the road with their boat, driving from bay to bay and checking the quality of the seafood. A dream job for the two, because in their galley there are mussels galore every day. Dick has dozens of recipes in his head: mussels boiled, baked, marinated, with garlic, chili or parmesan.

Way out in Pelorus Sound, almost on the open ocean, lives the Foote family. Trevor Foote is a sheep farmer and inherited the land from his grandfather. Once a week the mail boat comes by bringing letters, newspapers + a large package of school papers. That's because Trevor's wife Kelly home-schools their two children. School attendance? Unthinkable here in the remoteness. And anyway, life is not easy. "It's a good, clean, healthy life," Kelly and Trevor say, "but our farm doesn't yield enough anymore." The Footes want to sell. The freighter picking up the first 800 sheep is already coming through the fjord toward the farm, past the shellfish farms, past Dale + Julie's tile factory, past Wendy Gamble's trapper's cabin - and always through breathtaking scenery.