Interisland ferries use Tory Channel and Queen Charlotte Sound on their journeys between Picton and Wellington in the North Island.

Some of the small side arms of the two sounds are only hundreds of metres apart, but are separated by a steep serrated range of hills.

Not surprisingly, one of the settlements on this stretch of coast is called Portage, named for the simplest method of passing between the two sounds.

[7] The town of Picton, the northern terminus of the South Island's railway and state highway networks, lies near the head of the sound.

Many ships have been wrecked close to the entrance to the Sound, most notably in recent years the Russian cruise liner Mikhail Lermontov, which sank in 1986 in Port Gore after striking rocks.