In the distance is Kapiti Island home of the formidable 19th- century Maori warrior Te Rauperaha chief of the Ngatitoa tribe

In the distance is Kapiti Island, home of the formidable 19th- century Maori warrior Te Rauperaha, chief of the Ngatitoa tribe.Archaeological evidence suggests that the Maoris settled in the Sounds 800 years before Europeans arrived. Lower down grow silver ferns - emblem of the All Blacks rugby team - as well as generous supplies of rangiora, nicknamed bushman's toilet paper because of its large, soft leaves.An hour later, you emerge from the forest at a look-out with sweeping views over the two Sounds. With a wave at the scenic splendours around us he added, "this is much more fun."One of the highlights of the walk comes right at the start, when the path climbs steeply away from Ship Cove and cuts through a dense tangle of native bush. My companions included a North Island publican, two expat Geordies and a raucous gaggle of semi-retired Australians and New Zealanders who set a cracking pace on the trail by day and in the bar by night.Our guide was Steve, who, until a few weeks ago - surreal though it seems - was a sub-foreman in the boning room of a sheep abattoir in Blenheim, Marlborough's market town. Further on, logging and farming have taken their toll, but here the ancient forest is practically intact; towering above the canopy are groves of beech, matai and rimu, draped in creepers that brush your face as you pass. He and his girlfriend Juliette and a friend called Hamish clubbed together to buy a local tour company."I've seen plenty of sheep without their clothes on," said Steve, with only the faintest flicker of a smile.

An ever-changing vista of bays, coves and islands unfolds before you as you zigzag along skyline ridges during the four-day trek from Ship Cove to Anakiwa, a hamlet at the foot of the peninsula.The track, based on old bridle- paths, can be walked independently, or you can join a guided group, as I did, and have your luggage transported by water-taxi. In contrast to the more famous walking trails, such as the Milford Track and the Abel Tasman, it is relatively uncrowded, but offers views to equal those of the so-called Great Walks.Many locals know the Sounds, a maze of waterways formed when the sea invaded river valleys after the last Ice Age, only from the perspective of a boat. They look great from the water, but even better from dry land. For modern visitors, it is a place to fill one's lungs and marvel at the scenery before embarking on the Queen Charlotte Walkway, the 45-mile coastal path that begins there.The track, which traverses a hilly, bush-covered finger of land that separates Queen Charlotte and Kenepuru Sounds, is one of New Zealand's lesser-known attractions. For Cook and his exhausted, scurvy-ridden crew, it was a haven, a sheltered bay where they could gather timber to repair their battered vessel, the Endeavour, and draw fresh water from a nearby creek. Rugged and isolated, still accessible only by sea, it is one of the few spots to have remained virtually untouched since Cook stepped ashore more than two centuries ago.Arriving by boat, as Cook did, you get an inkling of why he spent 23 days there after being blown in by a gale while voyaging around the north- eastern tip of the South Island in January 1770, and why he returned during four subsequent trips to the Pacific.There is an austere beauty to Ship Cove, and a sense of time suspended. It has a small jetty and, on the foreshore, a rectangle of grass with an obelisk commemorating the first white man to land there, Captain James Cook. There are, as every contemporary traveller knows, countless sites around the globe with monuments to the great explorer, but this secluded inlet in New Zealand's Marlborough Sounds is special.

It has a small jetty and, on the foreshore, a rectangle of grass with an obelisk commemorating the first white man to land there, Captain James Cook. Ship Cove is not much to look at: just a narrow, pebbly beach with a ragged fringe of vegetation that grows down to within a few feet of the water's edge. It may not be showing at the moment but it's sure to resurface one day What goes around comes around.. Ship Cove is not much to look at: just a narrow, pebbly beach with a ragged fringe of vegetation that grows down to within a few feet of the water's edge. (There's one particularly crass narrative twist, involving what Spacey's bull-necked Marine neighbour sees, or mistakenly fancies he sees, through an uncurtained window, that would be better suited to American Pie than to American Beauty.) If that's the way you prefer your cinema to be, fine. If, on the other hand, you really are interested in watching a movie expose both the crises and the hypocrisies of the American Dream, I suggest you seek out Todd Solondz's infinitely more abrasive Happiness. Having one's hero lust after a teenager is one thing; having him screw her is another.And, in fact, the film's last third is just an unbroken sequence of cheap shots designed to keep its audience intrigued but ultimately undisturbed.