Lake Marian is an alpine lake at the southern end of the Darran Mountains in the Fiordland National Park in 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 ...

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 ...

. The lake is located just above the treeline in a hanging valley leading northwest from the Hollyford Valley near The Divide pass. The valley is sheltered by steep snow-covered peaks of over on all sides apart from the entrance. The lake is fed and drained by Marian Creek which in turn feeds into the Hollyford River / Whakatipu Kā Tuka. Marian Creek's catchment upstream of Lake Marian includes several permanent snowfields in a

cirque A (; from the Latin word ') is an amphitheatre-like valley formed by glacial erosion. Alternative names for this landform are corrie (from Scottish Gaelic , meaning a pot or cauldron) and (; ). A cirque may also be a similarly shaped landform ...

at the head of the valley northeast of the peak of Mount Crosscut. There the creek drains two smaller alpine lakes, Lake Mariana and Lake Marianette, followed by the tall Lyttle Falls, before it reaches Lake Marian. A 3-hour return

tramping Tramping may refer to: Travel *Hiking *Trekking *Tramping in New Zealand, a style of backpacking or hiking * Czech tramping, a Czech outdoors pastime Places * Rural Municipality of Tramping Lake No. 380, Saskatchewan, Canada ** Tramping Lake, Sas ...

track leads to the lake from a car park along the Hollyford Road, only 1 kilometre in from the Milford Road (SH94). The track starts by crossing the

Hollyford River 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, t ...

on a

swing bridge A swing bridge (or swing span bridge) is a movable bridge that has as its primary structural support a vertical locating pin and support ring, usually at or near to its center of gravity, about which the swing span (turning span) can then pi ...

before leading upstream alongside Marian Creek as it cascades over a series of small waterfalls. After this, the track becomes rougher and can be muddy in places, with the climb up to Lake Marian strenuous as it ascends almost in height. A good view of Lake Marian as it sits in the hanging valley between the peaks of Mt Christina, Mount Crosscut, and Mt Gunn can also be glimpsed from Key Summit on the opposite side of the Hollyford Valley on a short side track from the

Routeburn Track The Routeburn Track is a world-renowned, 32 km tramping (hiking) track found in the South Island of New Zealand. The track can be done in either direction, starting on the Queenstown side of the Southern Alps / Kā Tiritiri o te Moana, a ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marian, Lake Lakes of Fiordland