Fiordland: New Zealand's Most Dramatic Wilderness

Fiordland National Park covers 1.2 million hectares of the southwestern corner of New Zealand's South Island and is one of the largest national parks in the world. It is also one of the wettest — the mountains intercept the moisture-laden westerly winds and produce rainfall of up to 8,000 millimetres per year in some valleys, which feeds the waterfalls that cascade down the fiord walls and sustains the ancient podocarp rainforest that covers every surface.

Milford Sound is the most famous of Fiordland's 14 fiords — a 15-kilometre inlet flanked by walls of granite that rise 1,200 metres from the water, with the Mitre Peak (1,692 metres) dominating the view from the head of the sound. The fiord is technically a fiord rather than a sound (it was carved by glaciers, not rivers), and the combination of the sheer walls, the waterfalls, and the resident population of dolphins, seals, and penguins makes it one of the finest boat trips in the world.

The Milford Track is one of the world's great multi-day walks — a 53-kilometre, four-day hike from the head of Lake Te Anau to Milford Sound through a landscape of glacial valleys, alpine passes, and ancient rainforest. The track is limited to 90 independent walkers per day (plus guided groups) and must be booked months in advance. The MacKinnon Pass, at 1,154 metres, is the high point of the walk and offers views over the Clinton and Arthur valleys that are among the finest in New Zealand.

Doubtful Sound, accessible only by boat across Lake Manapouri and then by bus over the Wilmot Pass, is the largest and most remote of Fiordland's fiords — three times longer than Milford Sound and far less visited. The overnight cruises that operate on Doubtful Sound offer the finest wildlife watching in Fiordland — bottlenose dolphins, fur seals, Fiordland crested penguins, and the rare Hector's dolphin are all regularly seen.

The sandflies of Fiordland are legendary — small biting insects that are present in enormous numbers near the water and in the forest, and which can make outdoor activities genuinely unpleasant without adequate protection. Insect repellent containing DEET is effective, and the sandflies are less active in windy conditions and in the middle of the day. They are, in the words of every Fiordland guide, 'part of the experience'.

Te Anau, the gateway town to Fiordland, is a small lakeside settlement with a good selection of accommodation and restaurants, and the Te Anau Glowworm Caves — accessible by boat across the lake — are one of the finest cave experiences in New Zealand. The caves contain a colony of glowworms (Arachnocampa luminosa) that illuminate the cave ceiling with a blue-green light of extraordinary beauty.

The best time to visit Fiordland is from November to April, when the days are long and the weather is most stable. The winter months (June to August) are cold and wet, but the waterfalls are at their most powerful and the fiords are at their most atmospheric. The Milford Track is open from late October to late April; the Routeburn Track, which connects Fiordland to Mount Aspiring National Park, is open year-round.

The Kepler Track, a 60-kilometre loop from Te Anau that takes three to four days, is the most accessible of Fiordland's great walks — a circuit that climbs from the lakeshore through beech forest to the alpine ridge of the Luxmore Range, with views over Lake Te Anau and the Murchison Mountains that are among the finest in New Zealand. The track is less famous than the Milford but equally beautiful, and the huts are more comfortable and easier to book.

The underwater world of Fiordland is as extraordinary as the landscape above it. The freshwater layer that sits on top of the saltwater in the fiords — created by the enormous rainfall — filters out the light and creates conditions that mimic the deep ocean at shallow depths, allowing deep-water species such as black coral, sea pens, and brachiopods to live at 10 metres rather than 100. The diving in Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound is among the most unusual in the world.

Getting to Milford Sound: the road from Te Anau to Milford Sound (119 kilometres) is one of the finest drives in New Zealand, passing through the Eglinton Valley, the Avenue of the Disappearing Mountain, and the Homer Tunnel — a 1.2-kilometre tunnel blasted through the Darran Mountains that emerges into the Cleddau Valley with a view of the fiord below. The road is closed by avalanche risk in winter and can be congested in summer; leaving Te Anau before 8am avoids the worst of the traffic.

The overnight cruise on Milford Sound is the finest way to experience the fiord — spending the night on the water, watching the waterfalls in the last light of the evening and the first light of the morning, and waking to a landscape of extraordinary stillness before the day boats arrive. The Real Journeys overnight cruise departs in the late afternoon and returns the following morning, and the combination of the dinner, the wildlife watching, and the dawn light on the fiord walls makes it one of the finest overnight experiences in New Zealand.