Clifford Bay is a bay in the northeast of the South Island of

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, in the

Marlborough Region Marlborough District or the Marlborough Region (, or ''Tauihu''), commonly known simply as Marlborough, is one of the 16 regions of New Zealand, located on the northeast of the South Island. Marlborough is a unitary authority, both a distric ...

. It lies between

Cloudy Bay Te Koko-o-Kupe / Cloudy Bay is located at the northeast of New Zealand's South Island, to the south of the Marlborough Sounds and north of Clifford Bay. In August 2014, the name Cloudy Bay, given by Captain Cook in 1770, was officially altered t ...

to the northwest, and Cape Campbell. The bay's most notable feature is the solar

salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quant ...

extraction works at

Lake Grassmere Lake Grassmere / Kapara Te Hau is a New Zealand waituna-type lagoon in the northeastern South Island, close to Cook Strait. The lake is used for the production of salt. Geography Lake Grassmere, south of Blenheim and south of the mouth of ...

, close to the southern end of the bay. Since the 1920s, there have been various proposals for an inter-island port and ferry terminal to replace Picton. However, such plans never proceeded beyond an investigation stage, often due to the capital costs. In May 2011, plans were announced to revisit the development of a port at Clifford Bay, using a mix of private and public funding. Such a port would reduce both sailing time across the Cook Strait from

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by metr ...

and the surface distance to

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon Rive ...

. It would also allow ferries to operate at higher speeds than they can in the ecologically sensitive

Marlborough Sounds The Marlborough Sounds are an extensive network of sea-drowned valleys at the northern end of the South Island of New Zealand. The Marlborough Sounds were created by a combination of land subsidence and rising sea levels. According to Māori ...

and remove the steep grades on the railway line that leads out of Picton. While a new port at Clifford Bay would have affected the economy of Picton, there were positive options to refocus Picton as a tourist centre, and the gateway to the Marlborough Sounds. In November 2013, the Government announced it would not be building a new port at Clifford Bay, putting an end to two years of speculation.Clifford Bay ferry terminal axed
''3 News NZ''. 14 November 2013.

References

{{Coord, 41, 44, S, 174, 15, E, region:NZ_type:waterbody, display=title Bays of the Marlborough Region Cook Strait