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 Tasman ...

, comprising the westernmost third of Southland. Most of Fiordland is dominated by the steep sides of the snow-capped Southern Alps, 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, Ice ...

". The area of Fiordland is dominated by, and very roughly coterminous with,

Fiordland National Park Fiordland National Park occupies the southwest corner of the South Island of New Zealand. It is by far the largest of the 13 national parks in New Zealand, with an area of , and a major part of the Te Wahipounamu World Heritage Site. The park i ...

, New Zealand's largest

National Park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...

. 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 Sutherland Falls is a waterfall near Milford Sound in New Zealand's South Island. At 580 metres (1,904 feet) the falls were long believed to be the tallest waterfall in New Zealand. Terror Falls, in the Poseidon Valley (nearby), are 750m, and Brow ...

, 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 Abe ...

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 Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

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 Māori mythology and Māori traditions are two major categories into which the remote oral history of New Zealand's Māori may be divided. Māori myths concern fantastic tales relating to the origins of what was the observable world for the pr ...

, the ancestral 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 James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean an ...

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 Rakituma / Preservation Inlet is the southernmost fiord in Fiordland National Park and lies on the southwest corner of the South Island of New Zealand. With an area of , it is the fourth largest fiord in New Zealand, after Tamatea / Dusky Sound, ...

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. The r ...

Boundaries

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. 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 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 Hollyford Valley is a valley in Fiordland, New Zealand, in the southwest of the South Island. It is named for the Hollyford River, which runs north-north-west along its length from the Southern Alps to the Tasman Sea. Beech forest dominates both t ...

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 Te ...

and

Hollyford River / Whakatipu Kā Tuka The Hollyford River / Whakatipu Kā Tuka is in the southwest of the South Island of New Zealand. It runs for through Fiordland, its sources being close to the Homer Tunnel and in Gertrude Valley in the southern Darran Mountains. At first, the ...

. 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 an ...

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 o ...

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 undergro ...

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-silic ...

, 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 Mount Tūtoko is the highest peak in Fiordland National Park, in southwest New Zealand. It lies between the Hollyford Valley and Milford Sound, 15 kilometres due north of the Homer Tunnel at the northern end of the Darran Mountains. The glacier- ...

at , one of several peaks over 2,000 meters in the

Darran Mountains The Darran Mountains are a prominent range within New Zealand's Fiordland National Park, the country's biggest national park. They contain the park's highest peak, Mount Tūtoko (). The range lies between Milford Sound (Piopiotahi) and the valle ...

. 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

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 *

* Te Houhou / George Sound - 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 Thompson Sound (; officially Te Awa-o-Tū / Thompson 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 connected at its farthest extent with Pendulo Reach, ...

* Doubtful Sound / Patea - accessible via tours and tramping track *

Te Rā / Dagg Sound Te Rā / Dagg Sound is a narrow fiord located in Fiordland, New Zealand. It lies south of Doubtful Sound / Patea and north of Te Puaitaha / Breaksea Sound. Whales frequent the waters out from the entrance of the fiord, close to the edge of the c ...

Te Puaitaha / Breaksea Sound Te Puaitaha / Breaksea Sound is a small fiord on the southwestern coast of South Island, New Zealand in the Tasman Sea. Breaksea Island in Fiordland National Park lies at its entrance. In the 1850s, early settlers Henry Hirst and John Watt ...

* Tamatea / Dusky Sound - accessible via tramping track * Taiari / Chalky Inlet - leads into Edwardson Sound and Kanáris Sound *

- 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.

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 of l ...

, 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 elsew ...

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 ''Nothofagus menziesii'', commonly known as silver beech ( mi, tawhai, tahina), is a tree of the southern beech family endemic to New Zealand. Its common name probably comes from the fact that its bark is whitish in colour, particularly in younge ...

)'' in the fiords and red beech ''(

Nothofagus fusca ''Nothofagus fusca'', commonly known as red beech (Māori: tawhai raunui) is a species of southern beech, endemic to New Zealand, where it occurs on both the North Island and South Island. Generally it is found on lower hills and inland valley fl ...

)'' 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 t ...

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 The South Island takahē (''Porphyrio hochstetteri'') is a flightless swamphen indigenous to New Zealand and the largest living member of the rail family. It is often known by the abbreviated name takahē, which it shares with the recently ...

and

kiwi Kiwi most commonly refers to: * Kiwi (bird), a flightless bird native to New Zealand * Kiwi (nickname), a nickname for New Zealanders * Kiwifruit, an edible berry * Kiwi dollar or New Zealand dollar, a unit of currency Kiwi or KIWI may also refe ...

, 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 The Fiordland skink (''Oligosoma acrinasum'') is a species of skink endemic to the Fiordland temperate forests ecoregion of South Island, New Zealand. The Fiordland skink is found on one mainland locations and the exposed rocky shores of numer ...

''(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

, 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 h ...

. Fiordland National Park has an area of 12,600 square kilometres, making it the largest

national park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...

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 there ...

, 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 Piopiotahi (Milford Sound) Marine Reserve is a Marine reserves of New Zealand, marine reserve covering an area of in the Milford Sound / Piopiotahi, in Fiordland on New Zealand's South Island. It was established in 1993 and is administered by th ...

Te Awaatu Channel (The Gut) Marine Reserve Te Awaatu Channel (The Gut) Marine Reserve is a marine reserve covering an area of in Fiordland on New Zealand's South Island. It was established in 1993 and is administered by the Department of Conservation. It is the smallest marine reserve in ...

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 Taipari Roa (Elizabeth Island) Marine Reserve is a marine reserve covering an area of around Elizabeth Island, in the inner Doubtful Sound / Patea of Fiordland on New Zealand's South Island. It was established in 2005 and is administered by th ...

* Taumoana (Five Fingers Peninsula) Marine Reserve * Te Hapua (Sutherland Sound) Marine Reserve * Te Tapuwae o Hua (Long Sound) Marine Reserve

Demographics and economy

The Fiordland statistical area covers and had an estimated population of as of with a population density of people per km². Almost the entire population live at

Milford Sound (village) Milford Sound ( mi, Piopiotahi) is a small village located deep within Fiordland National Park in the Southland region of New Zealand. It is located at the head of the fiord also called Milford Sound. The village and fiord are one of the most visi ...

. 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 sho ...

, a decrease of 12 people (−9.8%) since the 2013 census, and a decrease of 33 people (−22.9%) since the

2006 census 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second small ...

. 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 Invercargill ( , mi, Waihōpai is the southernmost and westernmost city in New Zealand, and one of the southernmost cities in the world. It is the commercial centre of the Southland region. The city lies in the heart of the wide expanse of t ...

, 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 described ...

generation (at the

Manapouri Power Station Manapōuri Power Station is an underground hydroelectric power station on the western arm of Lake Manapouri in Fiordland National Park, in the South Island of New Zealand. At 854 MW installed capacity (although limited to 800 MW due to ...

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
(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 (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...

, and after short visits to the major sites, most tourists return to other areas, such as Queenstown or Invercargill.

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