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Created in 1952, Fiordland is New Zealand's largest area of wilderness
as well as its largest national park, and one of the largest in the world.
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Specific
references for this page:
Neville
Peat and Brian Patrick 1996: Wild
Fiordland - Discovering the Natural History of a World
Heritage Area. University of Otago Press.
Craig
Potton 1998: National
Parks of New Zealand. Craig Potton Publishing.
Wild
New Zealand 1981. Reader's Digest
New
Zealand National Parks, 1979. Collins Nature Heritage
Series.
Robbie
Burton & Maggie Atkinson 1998: A
Tramper's Guide to New Zealand National Parks.
Reed
John
Hall-Jones 1997: Discover
Fiordland - An Illustrated Guide. Craig Printing.
Mark
Pickering 1997: New
Zealand's Top Tracks - A Guide to the Department's of
Conservation's Great Walks. Reed.
Murray
Judge and Hugh Widdowson 1990: The
Darrans Guide. NZAC.
John
Kent 1998: South
Island Trout Fishing Guide. Reed.
John
Cobb 1990: The Walking Tracks of New Zealand's National
Parks. Viking.
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It
stretches 230 km (143 miles) from north-east to south-west,
and at its broadest 80 km (50 miles) across, covering an area
of 1,200,000 ha (3,000,000 acres).
See below: Activities - What to see and do in Fiordland National Park
Wilderness
Land that later became part of the national park was set aside as early as 1904.
There
are only three roads in the park (and a single one with public
access), and only a few tracks, although three of the country's
Great Walks (the Milford, Routeburn and Kepler tracks) are located
within its boundaries.
Geological
setting
Fiordland remained wild because it is a mountainous
and extremely rugged land. Altitudes are highest in the north
and reach 2746 m (9009') in the Darran Mountains (Mt Tutoko),
which also carry neves and little glaciers. However few summits
rise beyond 2000 m (6560') south of the Darrans, and altitudes
decrease progressively southwards down to 1000-1200 m (3280-3940').
The underlying rock is mostly granite, gneiss
and diorite, with some remnants of the tertiary limestone cover
in places on the eastern edge. These igneous rocks are among
the oldest in New Zealand (mostly Ordovician). They are also
among the hardest and most resistant to erosion. Thus they have
retained almost unchanged the very sharp imprint of the latest
ice ages, when an ice cap was covering the central mountain
area.
The glacier tongues that were flowing from it,
mostly to the west and east, gouged the fiords as well as the
great lakes (Te Anau, Manapouri, Hauroko, Monowai, Poteriteri,
Hakapoua) that match them symmetrically on the eastern and southern
margins of the park.
The result is a combination of deep valleys, sheer
rock faces sometimes over 1500 m (4920') high, and extremely
steep slopes. Both lakes and fiords are in places over 400 m
(1300') deep, so that the bottom of the lakes is below sea level
(Manapouri is 187 m above sea level, but 444 m deep).
See also: the main
rock types of New Zealand's mountains.
Climatic
conditions
Fiordland is submitted to the very high rainfall weather pattern
which is characteristic of the west coast of the South Island.
Milford Sound received an annual average of 6526 mm (257 in.)
annually over the period 1969-1998, spread over 180 days of
rain per year. But most of the rain falls west of the main divide,
and precipitation decreases sharply eastwards. Te Anau receives
about 1200 mm (47 in.) annually.
Temperatures are mild, at least at low altitude:
at Milford Sound, over the same period, mean maximum temperature
in summer (January) was 18.8 C, against mean minimum temperature
of 1.3 C in winter (July).
See also the Climatic
influence in the New Zealand mountains
Vegetation
Forests cover all of Fiordland National Park from
valley bottom up to the treeline. Most of these forests are
beech, primarily silver beech, and to a lesser extent mountain
beech. Podocarp are also present at low altitude, in the less
steep locations with deeper soil, such as valleys at the head
of fiords. The most commonly represented species are rimu, miro,
Hall's totara.
Where it has not been modified by browsing animals,
the understory is dense and varied, with many plants and shrubs,
ferns and tree-ferns, and epiphytes. There is often a tangle
of fallen rotting branches and tree trunks. Mosses form deep
cushions, covering the ground as well as tree trunks and branches.
However browsing animals, red deer and opossum especially,
are now present in most areas of Fiordland National Park. They
have proved to be the greatest factor of modification in the
park by changing the aspect of the forest, eating undergrowth
and trampling the mossy floor.
The altitude of the treeline is about 1000 m (3280'),
lower than in all other parts of New Zealand. Above it the vegetation
is dominated by snow tussock grasslands, with many other alpine
plants interspersed. Thirty five plant species are endemic to
Fiordland, most of them above the treeline. These endemics include
species of tussock (Chionochloa), daisies (Celmisia),
tree daisies (Olearia), speargrasses (Aciphylla),
and buttercups (Ranunculus).
Forest
Birds
Fiordland is home to the only wild population of
takahe in New Zealand. About 120 individuals live in the Murchison
and Stuart Mountains, where they were re-discovered in 1948.
The more common forest birds are well represented
in Fiordland: grey warbler, silvereye, South Island tomtit,
South Island rifleman, South Island fantail, brown creeper,
bellbird, tui, New Zealand pigeon, are found throughout the
park.
Fiordland also remains a stronghold for several
endangered species, which may be unevenly distributed throughout
the park: brown kiwi, South Island kaka, yellow-crowned parakeet,
weka, New Zealand falcon, and yellowhead.
Keas and rock wrens are found above the bush line,
although keas are also attracted by human activity. Flocks of
young keas are often seen in the Homer Tunnel area.
Fiordland's many waterways provide habitat for many
aquatic bird species, including paradise shelducks, New Zealand
scaup, grey duck, and New Zealand shoveler. It is also home
for the threatened blue duck, and the only South Island habitat
of the endangered brown teal.
Sea birds
The fiords provide habitat for a variety of seabirds,
including shags, tube-nosed birds (Procellariiformes),
gulls, oystercatchers, and penguins.
Albatross rarely enter the fiords but can be seen
off the Fiordland coast, where Southern Buller's mollymawks
have a major colony on Solander Island.
Tube-nosed seabirds of Fiordland include broad-billed
prions and mottled petrels, who breed on a number of islands
in Dusky Sound and nearby areas.
Sooty shearwaters migrate by millions from the north
Pacific and breed in Dusky Sound as well as on a number of islands
including Stewart Island.
The Fiordland crested penguin is one of the world's
rarest species. They breed on islands, especially Breaksea Island.
Blue penguins, the world's smallest penguin, are common in New
Zealand waters and in Fiordland are found from Doubtful Sound
south.
See also Seabirds
of New Zealand
Marine
mammals
Marine mammals are found extensively in Fiordland's waters.
Pods of bottlenose dolphins inhabit Milford and Doubtful sounds,
and pods of dusky dolphins are also found in the fiords. Common
dolphins are found mostly outside the fiords, while Hector's
dolphins are found in Te Waewae Bay.
Humpback, sperm and Southern right whale have been
sighted off the coast of Fiordland, as well as killer whales
(orca).
New Zealand fur seals are by far the most common
seal species in Fiordland. They breed in a number of colonies
along the coast, with the largest on Solander Island.
Southern sea elephants come on shore occasionnally,
as do leopard seals, more rarely, from their Antarctic breeding
grounds.
Hooker's sea lions, whose main colonies are on the
Auckland Islands, are re-establishing themselves on mainland
New Zealand, albeit in small numbers.
There are an estimated 3000 species of insects in
Fiordland, ten percent of which are endemic to the region.
In particular there is a great variety (100 species) of brightly
coloured alpine moths.
Of particular interest are the stoners, a not very well known
group of aquatic insects, with 11 species restricted to Fiordland.
Other species include the scree weta, the hairy alpine grasshopper,
20 species of giant weevils.
Short
and day walks
"The highway to Milford Sound is one of the most spectacular
scenic drives in the world. Although the 119 km distance from
Te Anau to Milford can be covered in two hours there are just
so many viewpoints and side trips on the way that a full day
should be allowed for the journey". John
Hall-Jones, in Discover
Fiordland - An Illustrated Guide.
There is a good choice of walks to discover
the many and often spectacular natural features of Fiordland.
Many of them are located along the road from Te Anau to Milford
Sound. There are also interesting walks from each of the other
roads giving access to the park, at lakes Hauroko, Monowai and
Manapouri.
The shorter walks offer quick and
easy access to native forest, alpine vegetation, spectacular
waterfalls, and many lakes large and small.
Several of the longer walks offer excellent
approaches to the wild shores of the great lakes Manapouri,
Te Anau, Horauko and Monowai.
One of the finest panoramas of Fiordland can be
obtained from Key Summit, encompassing the Hollyford, Eglinton
and Greenstone valleys and surrounding mountains.
Near Homer Tunnel a more difficult walk leads to
Gertrude Saddle, revealing the spectacular landscape of the
Cleddau Valley and Milford Sound.
The walk into the Tutoko Valley provides a good
introduction to the rainforest of Fiordland with its thick carpets
of mosses, lichens and ferns.
Tramping
Fiordland's immense wilderness of mountains,
valleys, lakes and fiords makes it an area of huge potential
for tramping. But the lack of tracks, bridges or huts in many
valleys, the steepness of the terrain, as well as the extremely
high rainfall, all contribute to making tramping there a very
challenging proposition, and which should be attempted only
by suitably experienced parties.
However there are also a number of more accessible
tracks of various lengths and degrees of difficulty. Among the
most popular, the Dusky Track runs from Lake Manapouri to Supper
Cover at the head of Dusky Sound. Another classic tramp is the
marked route that leads from Lake Te Anau's Middle Fiord to
George Sound. Both are reasonably demanding, requiring experience
and fitness. Three of New Zealand's Great Walks, the Kepler,
Milford and Routeburn Tracks, are in Fiordland National Park.
Mountaineering
Mountaineering in Fiordland is essentially
restricted to the Darran Mountains, which indeed provide some
of the best mountaineering in New Zealand. Nowhere is the spectacular
landscape of Fiordland more dramatic than in the Darrans. The
hard igneous rocks were deeply carved by the quaternary glaciers,
leaving lofty summits and low-altitude valley floors only separated
by sheer near-vertical rock faces, sometimes 2000 m (6560')
or more high. A disadvantage is the very high rainfall of the
region, which often turns these faces into huge waterfalls.
Tutoko (2746 m/9009') is one of the major objectives,
while the Homer and Adelaide areas (especially Mt Sabre) concentrate
much excellent and sometimes highly difficult rock climbing.
Winter climbing has also developed, both on frozen
waterfalls and in the faces and gullies of the major peaks.
Kayaking
The main runs are on the Hollyford, Cleddau, Tutoko, Arthur
and Eglinton rivers. Grades up to IV-V.
Fishing
Fiordland holds a variety of fishing
waters. Access is easiest in the Eglinton, Hollyford and Cleddau
valleys, and to lakes Te Anau and Manapouri. Most other rivers
are remote and difficult of access. Because of the very high
rainfall of the area flash floods are a serious concern and
river crossings can be very dangerous. Tramping skills are usually
required. Most rivers have brown trout, some rainbow trout,
and eels are also common. Many rivers hold trout up to 4.5 kg
(10 lbs).
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