A historic whaling site and area of early Māori occupation at Cutters Bay in Te Whanganui Port Underwood, Marlborough, can now be visited by walkers and cyclists.

The 206ha area, mostly covered in pine, was bought by overseas investor Huimei Investment Pty Ltd in 2018 under an agreement in which Huimei agreed to protect the area and provide public access.

Walkers can start at the whaling station end and walk to Robertson Point on the headland, or amble along the Whangatoetoe Bay foreshore. Cyclists can access the existing forestry road along the ridge. 

In 1839 Captain Daniel Dougherty and his Irish-American wife Sarah, née McAuley, settled in the bay to run a whaling station and a grog shop. Their daughter Ellen became the world’s first fully registered nurse in 1901.

A few years later the schooner Bee landed the South Island’s first merino sheep in the neighbouring bay, Whangatoetoe. Regular visitors to the bay in the mid-19th century included the Ngāti Toa chief and warrior Te Rauparaha and Colonel William Wakefield, leader of the first colonising expedition to New Zealand and one of the founders of Wellington City. 

The sailing vessels Holmwood and Alameda were brought to Cutters Bay in the 1940s and scuttled. Their remains are visible off-shore to this day.