Located in the Fiordland region
With its stunning scenery, Fiordland is a fantastic place to take your boat for scenic touring, fishing or fun.
There are numerous lakes, rivers and coastal locations to enjoy boating in Fiordland. Some of the most popular with boat launching facilities are:
Keep safe on the water and take notice of all access lane and speed boat rules, especially in high recreation use areas like Lake Manapouri and Lake Te Anau. Conditions can change very rapidly with the onset of bad weather.
Boating rules and safety information – Environment Southland website
There are 10 marine reserves bordering Fiordland National Park. These reserves have rules in them to protect nature.
Clean, check, dry between waterways to help prevent the spread of didymo and other freshwater pests.
There are special conditions in place to protect Fiordland National Park from further spread of the freshwater weed didymo. Boating in controlled areas is restricted – some areas are closed and others require a permit from DOC.
Biosecurity information for boat users – Environment Southland website
More about preventing freshwater pests in Fiordland National Park.
The Darran Mountains in Fiordland provide the greatest climbing challenge in the Fiordland area.
The most popular access is via the upper Hollyford Valley just off the Milford Road, south-east of the Homer Tunnel. Accommodation is available at Homer Hut – NZ Alpine Club.
Borland Road has an easily accessible rock climbing area commonly used by outdoor education groups.
Access is off Borland Road, around 5 km from Borland Lodge – Borland Lodge Adventure and Education Trust.
Freestone Hill is a rock climbing area near Manapouri – outside Fiordland National Park.
Permission from the landowners is required – Wendy and Cam McDonald.
Call: +64 3 249 6614
Fiordland’s 10 marine reserves offer excellent scuba diving and snorkelling opportunities all round. You can see the famous black coral and other spectacular underwater life and scenery.
More about the 10 marine reserves.
You can dive or snorkel independently or with one of the tourism or charter boat services available. All marine life is protected in the marine reserves.
As the fiords are fragile environments, follow the diving care code for Fiordland.
The lakes and rivers of Fiordland offer excellent fishing for brown and rainbow trout.
Listed here are some of the popular areas to go fishing in Fiordland. You need permission to cross private land when crossing private land to access rivers.
Every year on Labour Weekend the Te Anau fishing competition is held.
Wherever you choose to go fishing, you need to have a fishing licence which you can get from:
Make sure you know the current fishing season dates, regulations and catch limits.
Fiordland offers fantastic areas for kayaking, including Doubtful Sound, Milford Sound and numerous lakes and rivers.
Lake Te Anau is a great option for day kayaking or activities with the family. Link up with walks on the Kepler Track, such as Brod Bay.
Access is from the beach and lakefront.
This section of the lake can be very rough. There is good camping at the entrance to the fiord and at The Narrows further down, or stay at the Glaisnock Hut at the end of the fiord.
Access to the lake is from Te Anau Downs – 30 km north of Te Anau.
This section of the lake can be very rough, but also offers sheltered bays and islands, and the Junction Burn Hut in South West Arm.
More experienced parties may enjoy the adventure of going to George Sound via a 45 min kayak portage from North West Arm to Lake Hankinson (difficult terrain), then a walk on the George Sound Route.
No access or camping allowed in the Murchison Mountains including the southern side of Middle Fiord. This is because it's a special takahē area.
The best access to the lake is from Te Anau Downs – 30 km north of Te Anau.
There are walking tracks to the Hidden Lakes and lookout point, a jetty at Mussel Cove.
No access or camping allowed in the Murchison Mountains including the southern side of Middle Fiord. This is because it's a special takahē area.
Scenic, wild beauty with sheltered islands, beautiful beaches and good walking options accessible from shore.
Access to the water is at Pearl Harbour, Manapouri.
While challenging to access the sea around Fiordland, sea kayaking here is highly rewarding for the more skilled and adventurous. The most accessible areas are listed here, or you can go further afield by air or large boat transport.
Milford Sound is a very steep-sided fiord with striking beauty, but busy with boat traffic. The southern side is more sheltered from the prevailing westerly winds, in particular the afternoon day breeze during summer.
For camping there are two spots – Harrison Cove and Anita Bay. Access is by boat ramp off Deepwater Basin Road in Milford Sound.
Quiet, wild, isolated beauty. The southern side is more sheltered from the prevailing westerly winds. Numerous camp spots including Hall Arm.
Huts include Deas Cove Hut (Thompson Sound) and The Gut Hut (Doubtful Sound).
Access this fiord by crossing Lake Manapouri, travelling over Wilmot Pass to Deep Cove.
Guided kayaking and kayak hire options – Destination Fiordland website
Safety is your responsibility. Make sure you have the skills and the correct equipment to safely do your chosen activity.
Help prevent the spread of didymo and other freshwater pests that threaten our waterways.
How to prevent the spread of freshwater pests such as didymo.
These are many places to go in Fiordland National Park:
Visit Fiordland National Park Visitor Centre for information and tips.
Find out how to get to Fiordland National Park by road, air or boat.
Find information on how to get to Fiordland National Park, what the weather is like, and tips for safety, including what gear you will need.
A concession is required to fly a drone on any public conservation land.
Glaciers scoured the Fiordland landscape for tens of thousands of years, carving the fiords, lakes and deep U-shaped valleys so typical of the area.
Fiordland contains some of the oldest rocks in New Zealand, predominantly hard crystalline metamorphic rocks like gneiss and schist, and volcanic rocks like granite. Lying close to the alpine fault where two plates of the Earth’s crust meet, the area has been folded, faulted, uplifted and submerged many times.
Periods of submersion under the sea-bed have created areas of sandstone, mudstone, and limestone seen today at Te Ana-au Caves and on the Hump Ridge.
Over the last 2 million years glaciers have at times covered the area, gouging into the rock and creating U-shaped valleys, many of which are now lakes or fiords.
Today hundreds of lakes dot the landscape, among them Lake Hauroko, the deepest in New Zealand at 462 metres. Fourteen fiords, some stretching up to 40 kilometres inland, extend from Milford Sound/Piopiotahi in the north to Preservation Inlet in the south.
Fiordland National Park was officially constituted in 1952. Today it covers over 1.2 million hectares and was declared a World Heritage Area in 1986.
Fiordland was well known to the Māori, and many legends recount its formation and naming. Demigod Tuterakiwhanoa is said to have carved the rugged landscape from formless rock. Few Māori were permanent residents of the region but seasonal food-gathering camps were linked by well worn trails. Takiwai, a translucent greenstone, was sought from Anita Bay and elsewhere near the mouth of Milford Sound/Piopiotahi.
Captain Cook and his crew were the first Europeans to visit Fiordland, and in 1773 spent five weeks in Tamatea/Dusky Sound. Cook’s maps and descriptions soon attracted sealers and whalers who formed the first European settlements of New Zealand. From the middle of the 19th-century surveyors, explorers and prospectors began to penetrate the unexplored interior of Fiordland.
Preservation Inlet boomed briefly in the 1890s after gold was found, but efforts to establish mines, timber mills and farms in Fiordland have generally been short-lived.
Quintin McKinnon and Donald Sutherland opened up the Milford Track in 1889 and began guiding tourists through the now world-famous route. Richard Henry, one of the pioneers of threatened species work transferred kākāpō and kiwi to islands in Tamatea/Dusky Sound in the late 1890s and early 1900s.
There are several heritages sites in Fiordland National Park:
Te Rua-o-te-moko / Fiordland National Park Visitor Centre | |
Phone: | +64 3 249 7924 |
Fax: | +64 4 471 1117 |
Email: | fiordlandvc@doc.govt.nz |
Address: |
Fiordland National Park Visitor Centre Lakefront Drive Te Anau 9600 |
Postal Address: |
PO Box 29 Te Anau 9640 |
Full office details |