Fiordland

Fiordland has never had any significant permanent population. Māori knew the area well but only visited seasonally, for hunting, fishing and to collect the precious stone pounamu (New Zealand jade) from Anita Bay at the mouth of Milford Sound / Piopiotahi.[4]

In Māori mythology, the demi-god Tū-te-raki-whānoa carved the fiords from rock using his adze, perfecting his technique as he progressed from south to north, with the last fiord, Piopiotahi (Milford Sound), as his greatest achievement.

In 1770, Captain James Cook and his crew became the first Europeans to sight Fiordland. Cook returned and anchored in Tamatea / Dusky Sound for five weeks in 1773. The expeditions' maps and descriptions of the area attracted whalers and seal hunters, but only in the mid-19th century did surveyors and prospectors begin exploring Fiordland's interior.[5]

Between 1897 and 1908, two attempts at establishing a mining operation in the remote area of Rakituma / Preservation Inlet failed, and by 1914 the isolated small settlement of Cromartie (or Cromarty) there had been abandoned.[1][6]

The area was administered as Fiord County from 1876 until it was absorbed into neighbouring Wallace County in 1981. Since 1989, it has formed part of Southland District and of the wider Southland Region.

Fraser Beach on the eastern shore of Lake Manapouri

There are currently varying definitions for the boundary of the Fiordland region. The eastern boundary of Fiordland according to Statistics New Zealand stretches from Sand Hill Point on the western end of Te Waewae Bay more or less straight north, cutting through Lakes Hauroko, Monowai, Manapouri, and the South Fiord of Lake Te Anau, before veering northwest and ending with the southern side of Te Houhou / George Sound.[7] By that definition, the Fiordland region is almost entirely within the Fiordland National Park, except for small pockets near the two southernmost lakes, but the area does not include the three northernmost fiords (Milford Sound / Piopiotahi, Te Hāpua / Sutherland Sound, and Hāwea / Bligh Sound).

The much more widespread definition of "Fiordland" has an eastern boundary that roughly follows that of the Fiordland National Park for all but the northernmost end. This area contains all fiords as well as the Hollyford Valley and also includes the area around Big Bay, which lies to the north outside of the Fiordland National Park, but still belongs to the Southland Region. Tourism organisations[8] and the Department of Conservation[9][10] use this definition of the Fiordland region. New Zealanders generally regard the towns of Te Anau and Manapouri as part of the Fiordland region, even though they lie outside of the boundary of the national park.[11][5]

Mountains reach over 2500m in the northern parts of Fiordland

In geographical terms, the Fiordland region contains the huge mountainous regions west of the line from Te Waewae Bay to Monowai to Te Anau, and includes the valleys of the Eglinton River and Hollyford River / Whakatipu Kā Tuka. The area is almost identical to that of the Fiordland National Park, and is marked by U-shaped valleys and fiords along the coast and steep mountains with foundations of hard rocks like gneiss, schist, granite and diorite, with the softer rock having been carved out by multiple glaciations. Fiordland contains New Zealand's oldest known plutonic (igneous) rocks[12] and is dominated by the southernmost extent of the Southern Alps as the peaks reduce in height from north to south.

Snow regularly falls to low altitudes in winter

The tallest mountain in the Fiordland region is Mount Tutoko at 2,723 metres (8,934 ft),[13] one of several peaks over 2,000 meters in the Darren Mountains. Southeast of this area, there are only a handful of peaks reaching 2,000 meters, however due to the rainy weather with cold winters and lack of hot summer temperatures, even these mountains contain glaciers and peaks with permanent snow cover. The southernmost glacier is situated on Caroline Peak,[14] which only reaches 1,704 metres (5,591 ft),[15] and in the southwest of Fiordland the altitude for permanent snowfields lowers to under 1,500 metres (4,900 ft).[16]

The past glaciation's deep carving out of the landscape has also resulted in fiord-like arms in Lake Manapouri and Lake Te Anau, and on the coast managed to cause several large chunks of the mainland becoming cut off. The largest of these uninhabited offshore islands are Resolution Island and Secretary Island, and are important conservation sites, particularly as sanctuaries for endangered native birds.

Constituent fiords

Milford Sound / Piopiotahi, the most famous tourist destination in Fiordland, and the only fiord accessible by road[17]

Twelve fiords, some stretching up to 40 kilometres (25 mi) inland, and two inlets leading to three more fiords, extend along the coast from Piopiotahi in the north to Rakituma / Preservation Inlet in the south. In general, the fiords become wider from north to south as the height of the mountains decreases. The outlets of the southernmost fiords have a character more akin to inlets, with only the inner arms such as Long Sound resembling fiords.

• Milford Sound / Piopiotahi - the only fiord in the area with road access
• Te Hāpua / Sutherland Sound
• Hāwea / Bligh Sound
• Te Houhou / George Sound - accessible via tramping track
• Taitetimu / Caswell Sound
• Taiporoporo / Charles Sound
• Hinenui / Nancy Sound
• Te Awa-o-Tū / Thompson Sound
• Doubtful Sound / Patea - accessible via tours and tramping track
• Te Rā / Dagg Sound
• Te Puaitaha / Breaksea Sound
• Tamatea / Dusky Sound - accessible via tramping track
• Taiari / Chalky Inlet - leads into Edwardson Sound and Cunaris Sound
• Rakituma / Preservation Inlet - leads into Long Sound

A further sound, Kaikiekie / Bradshaw Sound, is basically an extension of Thompson and Doubtful Sounds after their junction at the eastern end of Secretary Island.

The area has been categorised as the Fiordland temperate forests ecoregion, having a variety of habitats and due to its isolation a high number of endemic plants. Much of Fiordland is heavily forested except for locations where surface rock exposures are extensive. The natural habitats are almost completely unspoilt. Nothofagus beech trees are dominant in many locations, silver beech (Nothofagus menziesii) in the fiords and red beech (Nothofagus fusca) in the inland valleys. In the understory there are a wide variety of shrubs and ferns, including crown fern (Blechnum discolor), areas of scrubby herbs above the treeline, patches of bog next to mountain streams and finally an area of rimu (Dacrydium cupressinum)-dominated sand dunes in the Waitutu area on the south coast.[18] Despite a latitude in the mid 40s, the treeline is generally below 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) because of the cool summers and the influence of the southern ocean on the climate.[19]

The area is home to threatened native bird species, such as the flightless takahē and kiwi, blue duck (whio), and yellowhead (mōhua). The takahē was presumed to have been extinct for 50 years before a small remaining population was discovered in Fiordland's Murchison Mountains in 1948. Since then, that area has been managed by the Department of Conservation, trapping stoats and controlling deer, helping takahē numbers in the area to increase to over 200 and remain at that level.[20]

There are also a great number of insects and one indigenous reptile, the Fiordland skink (Oligosoma acrinasum).[21] There are around 300 insect species endemic to the Fiordland region, many of them sizeable, such as weta, large caddis, and giant weevils, and some of them unusual, such as egg-laying worms, alpine cicadas, and brightly coloured alpine moths.[22] There are six species of native sandflies (blackfly, Simuliidae) with one endemic to Fiordland.[23]

Most of the area falls under the protection of the Fiordland National Park, part of the Te Wahipounamu World Heritage Site. Fiordland National Park has an area of 12,600 square kilometres,[24] making it the largest national park in New Zealand and one of the larger parks in the world, containing many tourist attractions, such as Milford Sound, Doubtful Sound and the Milford Track. The main threat to natural habitats is from introduced species, especially red deer, but these are now being hunted out of the area, and furthermore the park includes a number of small offshore islands which are free from introduced species and are designated Specially Protected Areas.

Several offshore areas of Fiordland are protected as part of Fiordland's marine reserves.

Tour boats at Milford Sound / Piopiotahi

Apart from the areas around the townships of Te Anau and Manapouri, at the edge of Fiordland, the Fiordland region has never had more than a few human inhabitants and is the least-populated area of the South Island (12 residents in 2013, virtually uninhabited),[25][26] with no villages or towns, and many areas almost inaccessible except by boat or air. The only settlements close by / in Fiordland (depending on definition) are Manapouri and Te Anau townships, which together have around 2,100 permanent inhabitants[27][28] and over 4,000 tourist beds.[29] The Fiordland region receives 1.2 million visitors per year, staying for a combined 1 million visitor nights.[30] The nearest city is Invercargill, about 80 kilometres (50 mi) east of southern end of Fiordland. The only major road in Fiordland is State Highway 94, also referred to as Milford Road, connecting Te Anau with Milford Sound.

Blanket Bay Hotel, not an actual hotel, may be the westernmost inhabited locality of New Zealand. The fishermen's refuelling and supply depot with a small jetty and helipad is located on a small island at the head of Doubtful Sound / Patea.[31][32]

Except for electricity generation (at the Manapouri Power Station and a smaller hydro-electric power station at Lake Monowai) and some agriculture, tourism is the only other major economic factor of the region. Visitor spending was NZ$92 million in 2003, and 1,017 people were employed full-time in the tourism industry, with an additional 1,900 people considered to be employed in tourism industry support services.[33] Most tourists visit Milford Sound / Piopiotahi, though walking in the more accessible eastern parts of the alps is a popular activity. Nonetheless, the remoteness of the region limits even tourism, and after short visits to the major sites, most tourists return to other areas, such as Queenstown or Invercargill.

• List of fiords of New Zealand

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Fiordland National Park.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Fiordland National Park

• Destination Fiordland – tourism organisation