Fiordland is a geographical region of New Zealand in the south-western corner of the
South Island
The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasma ...
, comprising the westernmost third of
Southland. Most of Fiordland is dominated by the steep sides of the snow-capped
Southern Alps
The Southern Alps (; officially Southern Alps / Kā Tiritiri o te Moana) is a mountain range extending along much of the length of New Zealand's South Island, reaching its greatest elevations near the range's western side. The name "Souther ...
, deep lakes, and its steep, glacier-carved and now ocean-flooded western valleys. The name "Fiordland" comes from a variant spelling of the
Scandinavian word for this type of steep valley, "
fjord
In physical geography, a fjord or fiord () is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Alaska, Antarctica, British Columbia, Chile, Denmark, Germany, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Icela ...
". The area of Fiordland is dominated by, and very roughly coterminous with,
Fiordland National Park, New Zealand's largest
National Park
A national park is a natural park in use for conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individua ...
.
Due to the often steep terrain and high amount of rainfall supporting dense vegetation, the interior of the Fiordland region is largely inaccessible. As a result, Fiordland was never subjected to notable logging operations, and even attempts at whaling, seal hunting, and mining were on a small scale and short-lived, partly also because of the challenging weather.
Today, Fiordland contains by far the greatest extent of unmodified vegetation in New Zealand and significant populations of endemic plants and threatened animals, in some cases the only remaining wild populations.
Fiordland features a
number of fiords, which in this area are typically named
sounds, reflecting the fact that sometimes fiords are considered to be a type of a narrow sound.
Of the twelve major fiords on Fiordland's west coast,
Milford Sound / Piopiotahi is the most famous and the only one accessible by road.
Doubtful Sound / Patea, which is much larger, is also a tourist destination, but is less accessible as it requires both a boat trip over
Lake Manapouri and bus transfer over
Wilmot Pass.
Also situated within Fiordland are
Browne Falls and
Sutherland Falls, which rank among the tallest waterfalls in the world, and New Zealand's three deepest lakes,
Lake Hauroko, Lake Manapouri, and
Lake Te Anau. Several other large lakes lie nearby, and Fiordland and the surrounding parts of Southland and
Otago
Otago (, ; mi, Ōtākou ) is a region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local government reg ...
Regions are often referred to as the
Southern Lakes. Only a handful of Fiordland's lakes are accessible by road -
Lake Poteriteri is the largest lake in New Zealand with no road access. Many of the region's lakes are not even accessible via tramping tracks.
This part of New Zealand, especially to the west of the mountain divide of the Southern Alps, has a very wet climate with annual average of 200 rainy days and annual rainfall varying from in
Te Anau to in Milford Sound. The prevailing westerly winds blow moist air from the
Tasman Sea
The Tasman Sea ( Māori: ''Te Tai-o-Rēhua'', ) is a marginal sea of the South Pacific Ocean, situated between Australia and New Zealand. It measures about across and about from north to south. The sea was named after the Dutch explorer ...
onto the mountains, resulting in high amounts of precipitation as the air rises and cools down.
History
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.
In
Māori mythology, the ancestral demi-god Tū-te-raki-whānoa carved the fiords from rock using his
adze
An adze (; alternative spelling: adz) is an ancient and versatile cutting tool similar to an axe but with the cutting edge perpendicular to the handle rather than parallel. Adzes have been used since the Stone Age. They are used for smoothing ...
, 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.
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.
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
Southland ( mi, Murihiku) is New Zealand's southernmost region. It consists mainly of the southwestern portion of the South Island and Stewart Island/Rakiura. It includes Southland District, Gore District and the city of Invercargill. T ...
.
Boundaries
There are currently varying definitions for the boundary of the Fiordland region. The eastern boundary of Fiordland according to
Statistics New Zealand
Statistics New Zealand ( mi, Tatauranga Aotearoa), branded as Stats NZ, is the public service department of New Zealand charged with the collection of statistics related to the economy, population and society of New Zealand. To this end, Stats ...
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
Te Houhou / George Sound is a fiord of the South Island of New Zealand. It is one of the fiords that form the coast of Fiordland.
Geography
The fiord is located between Taitetimu / Caswell Sound and Hāwea / Bligh Sound, on the northern centr ...
. 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
Sutherland Sound (officially Te Hāpua / Sutherland Sound) is a fiord of the South Island of New Zealand. It is the smallest of the fiords that make up the coast of Fiordland, and the only one with limited sea access (owing to a large sandbar a ...
, and
Hāwea / Bligh Sound
Hāwea / Bligh Sound is a fiord of the South Island of New Zealand. It is located in Fiordland, 30 kilometres southwest of Milford Sound, and is 15 kilometres in length. The fiord forms a crooked "Z" shape. Wild Natives River flows into the inner ...
).
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 and the
Department of Conservation
An environmental ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for the environment and/or natural resources. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of the Environment, ...
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.
Geography
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
The Eglinton River is located in the region of Southland in the southwest of New Zealand. It flows through Fiordland National Park for . Its headwaters are at Lake Gunn, east of Milford Sound, and it flows generally south before entering Lake T ...
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
Gneiss ( ) is a common and widely distributed type of metamorphic rock. It is formed by high-temperature and high-pressure metamorphic processes acting on formations composed of igneous or sedimentary rocks. Gneiss forms at higher temperatures a ...
,
schist
Schist ( ) is a medium-grained metamorphic rock showing pronounced schistosity. This means that the rock is composed of mineral grains easily seen with a low-power hand lens, oriented in such a way that the rock is easily split into thin flakes ...
,
granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies und ...
and
diorite
Diorite ( ) is an intrusive igneous rock formed by the slow cooling underground of magma (molten rock) that has a moderate content of silica and a relatively low content of alkali metals. It is intermediate in composition between low-sil ...
, with the softer rock having been carved out by multiple glaciations. Fiordland contains New Zealand's oldest known plutonic (igneous) rocks and is dominated by the southernmost extent of the Southern Alps as the peaks reduce in height from north to south.
The tallest mountain in the Fiordland region is
Mount Tūtoko at , one of several peaks over 2,000 meters in the
Darran 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, which only reaches , and in the southwest of Fiordland the altitude for permanent snowfields lowers to under .
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
Twelve fiords, some stretching up to 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
Sutherland Sound (officially Te Hāpua / Sutherland Sound) is a fiord of the South Island of New Zealand. It is the smallest of the fiords that make up the coast of Fiordland, and the only one with limited sea access (owing to a large sandbar a ...
*
Hāwea / Bligh Sound
Hāwea / Bligh Sound is a fiord of the South Island of New Zealand. It is located in Fiordland, 30 kilometres southwest of Milford Sound, and is 15 kilometres in length. The fiord forms a crooked "Z" shape. Wild Natives River flows into the inner ...
*
Te Houhou / George Sound
Te Houhou / George Sound is a fiord of the South Island of New Zealand. It is one of the fiords that form the coast of Fiordland.
Geography
The fiord is located between Taitetimu / Caswell Sound and Hāwea / Bligh Sound, on the northern centr ...
- accessible via tramping track
*
Taitetimu / Caswell Sound
Taitetimu / Caswell Sound is a fiord of the South Island of New Zealand. It is one of the fiords that form the coast of Fiordland.
Geography
The fiord is located between Te Houhou / George Sound and Taiporoporo / Charles Sound, on the cen ...
*
Taiporoporo / Charles Sound
Taiporoporo / Charles Sound is a fiord of the South Island of New Zealand. It is one of the fiords that form the coast of Fiordland.
Geography
Extending south from Milford Sound / Piopiotahi, Taiporoporo / Charles Sound is the sixth fiord in F ...
*
Hinenui / Nancy Sound
Hinenui / Nancy Sound is a fiord on the South Island of New Zealand. It is one of the fiords that form the coast of Fiordland.
Geography
Hinenui / Nancy Sound is located between Taiporoporo / Charles Sound and Te Awa-o-Tū / Thompson 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 Kanáris Sound
*
Rakituma / Preservation Inlet - leads into Long Sound
A further sound,
Kaikiekie / Bradshaw Sound
Kaikiekie / Bradshaw Sound is one of the larger New Zealand fiords. It is one of the sub fiords/arms that make up the Doubtful Sound/ Thompson Sound complex and forms the northernmost of the blind or dead end fiords in this system.
History
It ...
, is basically an extension of Thompson and Doubtful Sounds after their junction at the eastern end of
Secretary Island.
Ecology
The area has been categorised as the Fiordland temperate forests
ecoregion
An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas o ...
, having a variety of habitats and due to its isolation a high number of
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found els ...
plants. Much of Fiordland is heavily forested except for locations where surface rock exposures are extensive. The natural habitats are almost completely unspoilt.
Nothofagus
''Nothofagus'', also known as the southern beeches, is a genus of 43 species of trees and shrubs native to the Southern Hemisphere in southern South America (Chile, Argentina) and Australasia (east and southeast Australia, New Zealand, New Gu ...
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
fern
A fern (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta ) is a member of a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. The polypodiophytes include all living pteridophytes except ...
s, 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. Despite a latitude in the mid 40s, the treeline is generally below because of the cool summers and the influence of the southern ocean on the climate.
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.
There are also a great number of insects and one indigenous reptile, the
Fiordland skink ''(Oligosoma acrinasum)''. 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. There are six species of native sandflies (blackfly, Simuliidae) with one endemic to Fiordland.
Most of the area falls under the protection of the
Fiordland National Park, part of the
Te Wahipounamu World Heritage Site
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...
. Fiordland National Park has an area of 12,600 square kilometres, making it the largest
national park
A national park is a natural park in use for conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individua ...
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
An introduced species, alien species, exotic species, adventive species, immigrant species, foreign species, non-indigenous species, or non-native species is a species living outside its native distributional range, but which has arrived the ...
, especially
red deer
The red deer (''Cervus elaphus'') is one of the largest deer species. A male red deer is called a stag or hart, and a female is called a hind. The red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Anatolia, Iran, and parts of wes ...
, 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.
Marine reserves
Ten marine reserves have been established in Fiordland to protect a wide variety of species and habitats.
The original two reserves were established at the request of New Zealand Federation of Commercial Fishermen in 1993:
*
Piopiotahi (Milford Sound) Marine Reserve
*
Te Awaatu Channel (The Gut) Marine Reserve
An additional eight reserves were established on the recommendation of Fiordland Marine Guardians in 2005:
*
Hawea (Clio Rocks) Marine Reserve
*
Kahukura (Gold Arm) Marine Reserve
*
Kutu Parera (Gaer Arm) Marine Reserve
*
Moana Uta (Wet Jacket Arm) Marine Reserve
*
Taipari Roa (Elizabeth Island) Marine Reserve
*
Taumoana (Five Fingers Peninsula) Marine Reserve
*
Te Hapua (Sutherland Sound) Marine Reserve
Sutherland Sound Marine Reserve is a marine reserve covering an area of of Sutherland Sound / Sutherland Sound, in Fiordland on New Zealand's South Island. It was established in 2005 and is administered by the Department of Conservation.
Geog ...
*
Te Tapuwae o Hua (Long Sound) Marine Reserve
Te Tapuwae o Hua (Long Sound) Marine Reserve is a marine reserve covering an area of in Te Awaroa / Long Sound in Fiordland on New Zealand's South Island. It was established in 2005 and is administered by the Department of Conservation.
It is F ...
Demographics and economy
The Fiordland statistical area covers
and had an estimated population of as of with a population density of people per km
2. Almost the entire population live at
Milford Sound (village).
Fiordland had a population of 111 at the
2018 New Zealand census
Eighteen or 18 may refer to:
* 18 (number), the natural number following 17 and preceding 19
* one of the years 18 BC, AD 18, 1918, 2018
Film, television and entertainment
* ''18'' (film), a 1993 Taiwanese experimental film based on the sh ...
, a decrease of 12 people (−9.8%) since the
2013 census, and a decrease of 33 people (−22.9%) since the
2006 census. There were 3 households. There were 54 males and 60 females, giving a sex ratio of 0.9 males per female. The median age was 28.2 years (compared with 37.4 years nationally), with 3 people (2.7%) aged under 15 years, 69 (62.2%) aged 15 to 29, 39 (35.1%) aged 30 to 64, and 3 (2.7%) aged 65 or older.
Ethnicities were 73.0% European/Pākehā, 8.1% Māori, 24.3% Asian, and 2.7% other ethnicities (totals add to more than 100% since people could identify with multiple ethnicities).
The proportion of people born overseas was 62.2%, compared with 27.1% nationally.
Although some people objected to giving their religion, 67.6% had no religion, 21.6% were Christian, 2.7% were Muslim and 5.4% had other religions.
Of those at least 15 years old, 27 (25.0%) people had a bachelor or higher degree, and 9 (8.3%) people had no formal qualifications. The median income was $34,000, compared with $31,800 nationally. 3 people (2.8%) earned over $70,000 compared to 17.2% nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 102 (94.4%) people were employed full-time, and 3 (2.8%) were part-time.
Apart from the areas around the townships of
Te Anau and
Manapouri, which are not included in the Fiordland statistical area, the Fiordland region has never had more than a small number of human inhabitants and is the least-populated area of the South Island, with no villages or towns, and many areas almost inaccessible except by boat or air. The nearest city is
Invercargill, about 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
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...
, 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.
Except for
electricity
Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as describ ...
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.
[Milford Sound Transport - Issues and Options](_blank)
(GHD Ltd for Venture Southland, 2005) 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
Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism ...
, and after short visits to the major sites, most tourists return to other areas, such as
Queenstown or Invercargill.
See also
*
List of fiords of New Zealand
The fiords of New Zealand are all located in the southwest of the South Island, in a mountainous area known as Fiordland. A fiord is a narrow inlet of the sea between cliffs or steep slopes, which results from marine inundation of a glaciated ...
References
External links
Destination Fiordland– tourism organisation
{{Coord, -45.4, 167.2, type:landmark_scale:2000000_region:NZ, display=title
Coastline of New Zealand
Geography of Southland, New Zealand
Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests
Ecoregions of New Zealand