Taitetimu / Caswell Sound is a

fiord 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 ...

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 ...

of New Zealand. It is one of the fiords that form the coast of

Fiordland Fiordland is a geographical region of New Zealand in the south-western corner of the South Island, comprising the westernmost third of Southland. Most of Fiordland is dominated by the steep sides of the snow-capped Southern Alps, deep lakes, ...

Geography

The fiord is located between Te Houhou / George Sound and

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 ...

,NZ Topographic Map: Caswell Sound
/ref> on the central Fiordland coast. It is 16 kilometres in length, and extends in a roughly west-northwestern direction. The fiord is relatively straight except near its mouth, when it turns northward, and has no major arms or indentations. A small island, Styles Island, sits close to the southern shore at the fiord's entrance to 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 ...

. A straight ridge of peaks lies parallel with the fiord's south shore, between it and the valley of the

Juno River The Juno River is a river of Fiordland, New Zealand. It rises west of Lake Shirley and flows westward into the Tasman Sea between Taitetimu / Caswell Sound and Taiporoporo / Charles Sound. See also *List of rivers of New Zealand This is a list ...

. The highest point of these peaks, at , lies just to the west of the small mountain lake, Lake Shirley, which flows into the fiord over the

Shirley Falls Shirley may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Shirley'' (novel), an 1849 novel by Charlotte Brontë * ''Shirley'' (1922 film), a British silent film * ''Shirley'' (2020 film), an American film * ''Shirley'' (album), a 1961 album by Shirley Bas ...

. Mountains also stand against the northern shore of the fiord, several of them rising above . Several small rivers enter the fiord along its southern and northern shores, but the main river feeding the fiord is the Stillwater River, which flows into the fiord's eastern end. Shortly before entering the fiord it flows into the northeastern edge of Lake Marchant, exiting to the fiord at the lake's northwest. Lake Marchant is also fed by the Large Burn, which enters the lake's southern end.

Name

A. W. Reed lists four plausible origins for the fiord's name in his seminal ''Place Names of New Zealand'' (1975). The most favoured of these possibilities is that it was named for Jim Caswell, a half-caste

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 ...

Australian Aborigine Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Islands ...

guide to an early 19th-century sealing party. Reed does, however, also detail correspondence he had received that suggested that

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

Commander William Caswell was in charge of a survey of the sounds during the 1830s and that other place names in the area make his a likely origin of the name. Confusing things further is the presence of two other naval officers with the surname Caswell (George and Thomas) who had visited the area. In October 2019, the name of the fiord was officially altered to Taitetimu / Caswell Sound.

References

Sounds of Fiordland Fiordland National Park {{Fiordland