Fiordland national park new zealand. Fiordland flora

Arriving in the morning from Australia to New Zealand and settling in a hotel, we devoted our entire first day to exploring the city of Queenstown - New Zealand - the Land of Long White Clouds. Queenstown. Queenstown is located in the middle of the lower third. South Island New Zealand and from here it is very convenient to make sightseeing trips to different parts of this region.

And there is something to see here. The shores south side the islands are very beautiful - they are indented by numerous bays, bays and fjords. There is interesting mountains and well-equipped trails with parking lots and shelters for wandering around at your leisure. But all this takes time. And we have just barely enough - only 12 days for both New Zealand islands.

Road to the fjord Early the next morning, Richard picked us up and we drove out to the Milford Sound Fjord, one of the main attractions in southern New Zealand.

Having left the limits of Queenstown, the road climbed a small pass and the vastness of the South Island opened before us.

Richard comments on the places that we pass and says that during the trip we will visit several points of interest from a tourist point of view. The first will be the small town of Te Anau, then the small Mirror Lake, then the interesting geological formation Chazm and the one-way tunnel.

Having stopped in the town of Te Anau, we cheered up from an early rise with a cup of coffee and walked along the embankment of the lake of the same name. Despite the early morning, there were many people in the town - who, like us, made a stop on the way to the Milford Sound fjord, and many came here to do hiking trails in the surrounding mountains. In a few days, walking along the mountain trails, you can also go to the coast and fjords. Te Anau is the last locality in front of the deserted road to Milford Sound.

We make the next stop at a place with the loud name Mirror Lake - Mirror Lake. In fact, it is some kind of lake in a swamp. Walkways are laid along the lake. There was no wind and there was a mirror under us. But only out of the water. It reflected the mountains standing not far away and the sunken driftwood was clearly visible at a depth.

The tunnel has a length of about 2 kilometers and is pierced in the rock mass. The work in it is not finished yet and it is uncomfortable to ride in it - water flows from the ceiling, there is no lighting inside, the asphalt is bumpy. For most of it, the road runs downhill. The tunnel is closed for the night and renovations are being done on the sly.

Having passed through the tunnel, we found ourselves in a different climate - in some places there was snow, despite the fact that it was hot. The road went downhill faster and in half an hour we arrived at the small harbor of the Milford Sound fiord (44 ° 40'S, 167 ° 55'E). Departure of our beautiful three-deck "Milford Sovereign" - in half an hour.

Fjord cruise Milford Sound is one of 14 fiords located inside Fiordland National park and the Te Wahipounamu World Heritage Conservation Area. Milford Sound - business card New Zealand. In the Maori language, it is called Piopiotahi. This is a narrow bay of the Tasman Sea about 15 kilometers long with steep and steep banks up to 1200 meters high. Like most fjords, it is shallow at the throat and deeper at the opposite end.

On the mountain slopes, clinging to stones, rain forests grow, and in the water you can often see fur seals, penguins and dolphins frolicking. The steepness of the slopes does not at all interfere with all kinds of plants, intertwining with each other, densely covering the rocks.

These places are some of the wettest on Earth. According to official figures, there are 182 rainy days a year and during this time 6.813 mm of precipitation falls, which turn into streams of water falling down in the form of waterfalls.

Finally, our boat slowly departs from the dock and enters the waters of the fiord. All at once take out photographic equipment to capture all the beauty that has opened up ahead. And, of course, yourself, your loved ones - “I was here”! Immediately after leaving the harbor, a powerful waterfall, Bowen Falls, 160 meters high, appeared on the right.

There were several other ships not far from us. travel companies, but they were much smaller than ours, and they were mercilessly thrown on the waves. I do not envy their passengers. And we didn't feel the pitching at all. In about an hour, the ship reached the exit to the Tasman Sea and turned in the opposite direction.

The throat of the fiord is not very wide. This is probably why Captain Cook, twice sailing in these places, did not notice the entrance to this fiord. We were very lucky with the weather. Not a cloud in the sky, however, a very strong wind.

A large stream of Stirling Falls appeared ahead, shining in the sun, and the captain was directing the ship straight to this water glow. Full delight for everyone on the bow of the ship! Cascades of stunning beauty rush down from a height of 155 meters directly onto the deck, splashing those who gape. Beauty and stunning!

And old man Kipling was right when he visited these places at the end of the 19th century and called this fjord “the eighth wonder of the world”. It is visited by up to 1 million tourists annually. And this despite the fact that the entire population of the country is a little over 4 million! What is it !?

The road back to Queenstown passed without incident, apart from being stuck in a traffic jam of thousands of sheep being driven along our only road. All management of this huge herd was carried out by one shepherd and three dogs - the shepherd calmly walked along the side of the road, and the dogs drove the herd along the road, along the way, collecting and urging on the lost.

In the Appendix - the author's documentary - "New Zealand - The Land of Long White Clouds" - 37 min. - overland.com.ua/films/new_...

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👁 Do you know? 🐒 This is the evolution of city excursions. VIP-guide - a citizen, will show the most unusual places and will tell urban legends, tried it, it's fire 🚀! Prices from 600 r. - will definitely please 🤑

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Fiordland is a national park in New Zealand. By its territory of 12,500 km 2, it is the largest in the country. National park Fiordland was founded in 1952. On the western borders, the park is bounded by the fjords of the Tasman Sea, and on the eastern side, by the lakes. The lakes in Fiordland are some of the deepest in New Zealand, and the mountains are up to 2746 meters high.

Together with the Mount Cook, Westland and Mount Aspiring National Parks, Fiordland forms the Te Wahipunamu World Heritage Site. The park contains some of the world's oldest natural complexes. The nature of these is represented by alpine valleys and subtropical forests, so that the park sharply distinguishes from the rest of the island. Previously, this area was covered with glaciers, which formed fjords and gorges.

The tourists arriving here are struck by the lack of human activity. As if these places have never even been visited. it's hard to find here appropriate place for housing. In addition, the proximity of glaciers with evergreen forests is surprising.

The lakes of the national park deserve a separate article, because they have rich story... One of the deepest and longest of them is Waikatipu. Its length is more than 100 km, and its depth reaches 400 meters. 25 rivers without names carry their water to it, they are simply numbered on the map. Due to its peculiarity, the lake is sometimes called "the heart of the South Island". The water in the lake rises by 7 cm approximately every 5 minutes and almost immediately returns to its original position. Such a phenomenon has not yet been given a reasonable explanation. But have local residents there is an explanation for this - the heart of a giant beats there.

According to the ancient Maori legend, the daughter of the chief Manat once lived here, who fell in love with the hunter Matakauri. Once a mighty giant attacked their tribe and took a girl prisoner. then he called all the soldiers and ordered them to save Manata, and to the one who would save her, he promised to give her as a wife. All except Matakauri were frightened into a giant and he had to go alone to the monster to perish. Raising high into the mountains, the hunter found the chief's daughter tied to a tree, and a giant was sleeping nearby. The young man took the girl to the tribe, and he himself returned to the mountains, since the giant must be killed, otherwise he will take revenge. While the giant was asleep, outstrip it on the mountains - Matakauri covered it with brushwood for several days. He set fire to brushwood and the flame engulfed the giant, the sun was clouded with smoke, and the heat was so strong that it burned through the earth, forming a huge depression. Over time, rainstorms and waters of mountain rivers filled the hole, which was later named Lake Waikatipu. But a mighty heart remained of the giant, lying deep under the water, and with every blow of it, the water rises into the lake and immediately descends.

The national park is home to unique birds - rare kakapo parrots that live underground, feeding on worms and snails. Also here lives a predatory parrot kea, which is able to cut the carcass of a dead sheep to the skeleton. They were almost completely exterminated by the farmers, because they believed that the kea sat on the back of the sheep and were torn to pieces alive. Previously, there were no corbals with freezers, so the current wool was sent to Great Britain, and the cape was thrown away, and the winged "orderlies" ate them. According to zoologists, kea does not attack live sheep.

The southern island was once called the "takahe habitat". Tatahe is a bird the size of a goose and unable to fly. It is distinguished by bright and lush plumage, powerful legs and a short thick red beak. In the arrival of the Europeans, it was beaten out. But in 1948, an amateur naturalist Orbell found a bird near Lake Te Anau, which he considered extinct. This became one of the greatest birdwatching discoveries of the 20th century.

In addition to these rare birds, other birds are found in Fiordland National Park: kiwi, rocky wrens, stubble beaks, New Zealand ducks, veralls, yellow crows, and many species of parrots. For them, there are many types of food, among which there are 3000 varieties of insects. Of these, 10% can be found exclusively in the national park. Deer, couscases, rats, and wapiti imported by Europeans were able to adapt here. In the waters of the fjords, you can meet seals, sponges, mollusks, albatrosses, petrels, penguins, including the rarest New Zealand crested penguin.

The mountain ranges of Fiordland are considered one of the most wet areas in the world. It rains for almost 200 days a year, which falls uniformly throughout the year. Because of which in the fjords there is always a layer of fresh water of 40 meters. average temperature July - 5 ° C, and in January - 23 ° C.

National Park in the southwest of the South Island of New Zealand .. Created in 1904, an area of ​​1.2 million hectares. Protects natural complexes of humid evergreen forests with tree ferns, laurels, legacles, rosaceous, myrtle and lianas, complexes of subtropical forests with southern beech and shrub thickets, as well as alpine and subalpine meadows on the slopes of the Southern Alps. The park is known for its unique fauna of birds, including the rare kea parrot, forest parrot kaka or green nestor, burrowed owl parrot, the best singer of New Zealand forests - the thuja bird (shrub robin) and the takahe shepherd, which until recently was considered extinct and found only in one of the valleys of the Fiordland, as well as the symbol of the country - the flightless kiwi and the yellow-eyed penguin. Dolphins and seals are found in the waters off the coast. It gives a special flavor to the park exclusively scenic landscape rugged deep fjords the coast, to which mighty glaciers descend from the mountains, in places reaching an altitude of 300 m.

Fiordland
The extreme southwest of the South Island of New Zealand has long been called Fiordland - the Land of Fjords. The nature here is strikingly different from the hilly plateaus. North Island, above which and only in some places low cones of young volcanoes rise. South Island - predominantly Mountain country, the backbone of which is the mighty chain of the Southern Alps, raising its snowy peaks to almost 4 kilometers.

A huge glacier that once covered this area carved deep trough-like gorges in the slopes of the ridge, in which a dozen long narrow lakes and at least thirty deep fjord bays were formed, which gave the name to this picturesque corner of the country. New Zealand is extremely rich in natural beauty, but the scenery of Fiordland is the most beautiful thing that can be seen in this fabulous land, and perhaps on our entire planet. A traveler who has got here at the first moment loses the power of speech when the ship enters a calm bay surrounded by kilometer-long walls of rocks and takes a course inland, where the snow on the slopes of the Southern Alps is whitening.

And the farther the motor ship sails, the longer the tourist gets acquainted with the amazing and diverse nature of the Fiordland, the more his admiration is captured. magical beauty surrounding places. And it is difficult to decide what is the most picturesque, most interesting, most majestic and most exciting in this wild and deserted country: bays or mountains, forests or waterfalls, lakes or glaciers, rare, disappearing birds or the longest mosses in the world ... Twenty descending from the mountains Thousands of years ago, giant glacial tongues cut through the rocky shores of the South Island its main decoration - winding fjords that sometimes go 50 km deep into which three hundred-meter waterfalls rush down from steep cliffs. And located in the vicinity of the Milford Sound fjord, Sutherland Falls, whose height reaches almost six hundred meters, is one of the five highest on our planet.

New Zealand's bays compare favorably with the equally beautiful fjords of Norway or southern Chile by the complete absence of traces of human activity. Their shores go into the water so steeply that it is not easy to find a place on them not only for a village, but also just for a tourist tent. The second characteristic feature of Fiordland is the unusually close proximity of its coastal forests to mountain glaciers. Nowhere else on Earth do rivers of ice descend directly to the edge of humid evergreen forests. The contrast of the bluish, half-kilometer-thick glacier riddled with cracks with thickets of myrtle, southern beech and laurel bordering its base literally amazes the traveler who sees from the deck of a cruise ship through binoculars the proud slopes of the majestic ridge of the Southern Alps.

Meanwhile, the seeming implausibility of this picture is easy to explain. Due to the steepness of the western "facade" of the Southern Alps, New Zealand glaciers move much faster than their counterparts anywhere in the Pyrenees or the Himalayas. Some of them, for example, the Tasman glacier, move down half a meter every day. Before melting, the tongue of the glacier manages to descend sometimes to an altitude of 300 m above sea level. And the upper border of forests at this latitude reaches 1000 m. As a result, ice and tropical forests meet each other, ignoring "intermediaries" like alpine meadows or mountain tundra.

Even more beautiful are the numerous mountain lakes of the Southern Alps. Narrow, extended and compressed by rocky slopes, rising 1.5-2 km above their blue waters, they are somewhat reminiscent of the reservoirs of the Taimyr Putorana plateau in Siberia. But, of course, the forests surrounding the Te Anau, Waikatipu, Huanaka, Ohau or Rakaia lakes are immeasurably richer, thicker, taller and more luxurious than the Putorana larch woodlands. The valleys in the depths of the mountainous regions are absolutely not inhabited. In many places in the Fiordland, no human has ever set foot. And each new expedition opens here previously unknown peaks, waterfalls, lakes and passes.

Lake Waikatipu, the longest lake in New Zealand, stretches from northwest to southeast for almost 100 km, cutting through the ridge in a blue transverse zigzag. Its depth reaches 400 m. So many rivers flow into Waikatipu, due to the absence of a population that did not have local names that the topographers preferred not to exercise their imagination, but to designate them on the map simply by serial numbers: from First to Twenty-Fifth. A mysterious natural phenomenon is associated with this lake, the explanation of which has not yet been found by science. The water in it rises by seven and a half centimeters every five minutes, then drops to the previous level. The lake breathes, as it were. New Zealanders love to say that the heart of the South Island beats under the waters of Waikatipu.

And here is how the ancient Maori legend explains the mystery of Lake Waikatipu: “A long time ago,” it says, “the daughter of the chief Manat and the brave young hunter and warrior Matakauri lived in one of the valleys of the island. The young man and the girl fell in love, but trouble happened - the evil giant Matau attacked their village and took Manata to his possessions, far inland snow-capped mountains... In desperation, the old leader, the girl's father, turned to all the warriors of the tribe, begging them to save his daughter. To the one who would save the girl, he promised to give her as a wife. None of the men dared to engage in a fight with the giant, and only Matakauri ventured into this desperate business. The young daredevil climbed high into the mountains and found a sleeping giant there, and next to him - Manata tied to a tree. Having freed his beloved, he went down with her to the village, but did not stay there with the girl, but returned to the mountains again. After all, it was clear that, having woken up, the evil giant would again descend into the valley and deal with the kidnapper, and carry the girl back.

And Matakauri decided to destroy the giant. While he slept, resting his head on one mountain, and his legs on the other two, the young man began to drag armfuls of brushwood, twigs and logs from the forest and put them around the sleeping giant. Matakauri worked for many days and nights. Then, rubbing two pieces of wood together, he made a fire and lit the fire. The giant was engulfed in flames, and the smoke covered the sun. The heat from the huge fire was so intense that the flames burned the ground. A giant depression was formed, resembling the outlines of the body of a giant. Rains and mountain rivers filled it with water and turned it into a lake, which people called Waikatipu. And only the giant's heart did not burn. It lies deep at the bottom of the lake and still beats. And with each blow, the lake waters rise and fall ... "

Over the past decades, so many rare birds have been found in the remote corners of the Land of Fjords that the country's authorities decided to create in this part of the island one of the largest national parks in the world with an area of ​​one million two hundred thousand hectares! (This is more than the entire territory of Lebanon or Cyprus.) In the forests of Fiordland Park, there are such unique species as the rarest owl parrot-kakapo, which lives in earthen burrows and feeds on snails and worms, or a huge and unusual in its habits kea parrot-predator, capable , like an African vulture, butcher the carcasses of fallen sheep, leaving only skeletons of them.

Kea was practically exterminated in other places in New Zealand, as farmers-pastoralists believed that he could sit right on the backs of sheep and pull out pieces of meat directly from live animals, and therefore mercilessly destroyed a beautiful bird, for the first time, by the way, who got acquainted with meat only after the appearance of Europeans. Indeed, before that, there were no mammals in New Zealand at all, except for bats, and only the English settlers taught the kea to an unusual diet. The fact is that before the invention of refrigerated ships, New Zealanders sent only sheep wool to England, and threw away the carcasses. And then around the slaughterhouses there was enough food for a well-fed existence for more than one dozen winged "orderlies". However, most zoologists categorically deny the accusation of attacks on live sheep.

The most beautiful emerald parrot, the vocal bird of the thuja and the admittedly best singer of the alpine forests, prosaically called the yellow crow, are also found in the mountain thickets of the Fiordland. And in 1948, on the shores of Lake Te Anau, amateur naturalist Orbell discovered the long-extinct bird called the Takahe, which was the largest ornithological discovery of the 20th century. Takahe is a flightless bird about the size of a large goose. It is distinguished by bright, beautiful plumage, strong legs and a short thick beak of bright red color. Once upon a time, before the arrival of Europeans, there were so many takahe on the South Island that the entire western coast of the Maori was called "the place where the takahe live."

Immigrants from England liked hunting for tasty game unable to fly away, and already at the end of the 19th century, hunters stopped meeting takahe. It was believed that they were completely exterminated, but after more than half a century it turned out that several pairs of unique birds found refuge on the shores of the hard-to-reach mountain lake... Now the area of ​​their habitat is under strict protection, and the rare type of type seems to be saved from death.

Some optimistic zoologists believe that in the inaccessible corners of the Fiordland, the giant moa birds, three-meter giants of the New Zealand fauna, could have survived to this day. Having disappeared several centuries ago, they were the largest birds on Earth, along with the now extinct inhabitant of Madagascar - the giant epyornis ostrich. Alas, the hopes of the optimists are most likely unfounded. No traces of moa have yet been found.

And on the highways of the southern part of the island, you can often see unusual road sign with the image of a penguin enclosed in a red circle. This is how the road service warns about the crossing points of yellow-eyed penguins - small cute birds, completely different from their polar counterparts in a way of life. They make their nests in the forest, several kilometers from the coast, and every day they leisurely walk to the sea, where they get food for aphids for themselves and their offspring.

From the southernmost in New Zealand big city Dunedin in the Land of Fjords can be reached both by land and by sea. The most popular of the Fiordland bays - Milford Sound - leads from Lake Waikatipu along a narrow road through an amazingly beautiful gorge. New Zealanders called this path the Path of Miracles. The lake itself, steeped in legends, is connected with the inhabited areas of the east coast by an old path, once laid by gold diggers. At one time, Waikatipu went through a period of "gold rush", when tent camps and gold mines appeared on its banks like mushrooms. But the reserves of the precious metal soon ran out, and now only the old road, which has become a tourist route, reminds of the old days.

It is no less interesting, and even more accessible for a tourist unprepared for mountain hikes, to travel along the fjords on a motor ship. Such a voyage will allow, regardless of the weather (which is full of rains and fogs), to enjoy the fantastic landscapes of the Land of the Fjords and, in particular, to visit the Dusky Sound Bay hidden behind the mountainous Resolution Island, where the camp of Cook's expedition, which made the first map, was located more than two centuries ago. Fiordland coastline. He also gave the name of his ship "Resolution" and the island, which closes the hospitable and picturesque bay from autumn storms.

A hundred miles to the north, the main attraction of Fiordland, the famous Milford Sound, cuts 40 km into the depths of the coast. And when the ship passes the Miter mountain guarding the entrance to it, which has raised its peak 1700 m above the sea, and is surrounded by steep wooded slopes of coastal ridges, the traveler begins to think that he is swimming in a fairy tale. Now the blue, now the emerald waters of the fjord do not stir not the slightest breeze. From the green thickets, the gentle voice of a thuja bird can be heard. Ahead, at the turn of the bay, the long foamy tape of the waterfall is silvery, and even further, in the very depths, the snowy peaks of the Humboldt Mountains rise, behind which lies the mysterious and alluring Lake Waikatipu. At the foot of the mountains is the only settlement on the entire coast of the national park - the Milford Sound tourist base, from where the scenic trail will lead the traveler to the most amazing and grandiose natural wonder of the Southern Alps - the crazy jump of the mighty river from the black cliff, which bears the name of Sutherland Falls.

From it, a simple pass takes the tourist to the shores of a spacious and deep lake Te Anau, home to the clumsy red-billed takahe - fortunately undying pearl of the bird kingdom. The further path will lead the traveler to the Trail of Miracles, which runs a little to the north, along which you can return to Milford Sound. But the impression of the South Island will be incomplete if you do not continue the journey beyond the northern border of the Fjordland - to the Westland fjords, located at the foot of highest peak New Zealand, Cook Mountains. The stunning landscape that opens up here to the tourist's gaze can be roughly described as a Swiss view in the Mont Blanc area with the Norwegian seaside landscape in the foreground. The symphony of forms and colors of the sea, jungle, snow, ice and stone will be remembered for a long time by a tourist who comes here.

Of course, you can truly feel the enchanting and some kind of piercing beauty of this mountain landscape only by walking yourself along the steep and ice of the Southern Alps. In addition, a breathtaking journey along the bluish-white slopes of the Franz Josef Glacier, which reaches almost 600 m in thickness, will make the traveler experience a lot of thrills when crossing cracks along snowy bridges and descending from almost sheer icefalls. The exit from the ice zone to the sea through foggy moist forests, overgrown with moss reaching up to the waist and filled with ringing bird songs, will become a spectacular final chord in this journey, full of vivid impressions, amazing contrasts and unforgettable landscapes, to the opposite side from Moscow. the globe, to the most beautiful corner of Oceania - New Zealand Fiordland

Fiordland National Park is an amazingly beautiful park with wild nature in New Zealand. It forms a large area of ​​untouched forest combined with water bodies and mountain ranges. Another very popular place among tourists. (12 photos)

Awesome beautiful view Fiordland National Park

Fiordland Park is unique in its kind. Looking at some of his photographs, it immediately becomes clear how handsome he is. Mountain ranges cut by the fjords of the Tasman Sea, all kinds of waterfalls, with crystal clean water, create an indescribable atmosphere of beauty.

First of all, favorable conditions for the park. The oceanic climate reigns here, with warm weather, while it is quite humid, without droughts and sudden changes in temperature.

In 1952, the New Zealand government decided to protect such beauty from possible human encroachment. And a national park was created. Fiordland Park is on the list today world heritage UNESCO.

The territory of the park is quite large, its area is 12,500 km². Another of the attractions of the park are its mountains. Their nature is such that they are protected from the destructive actions of the surrounding nature. Thus, we can observe the mountains that appeared here 2 million years ago. The height of the mountains in the park reaches 2,746 meters above sea level. This is certainly not, but also high enough.

The nature of the park is unique in its combination. Only here you can see how very close to each other, there are lianas of the rainforest and mountain glaciers, on which penguins proudly flaunt. Also, tropical lianas are combined with huge beech trees. By the way, Buka is over 800 years old.

Fiordland National Park is also rich in various lakes, which are distinguished by crystal clear water. The steep waterfalls descending from the plateau are also mesmerizing. Sometimes you can find rainfalls, but they are so small that often the wind blows them away before they touch the ground.

Deserves special attention animal world parka. Here, in all its diversity, various types of animals are represented. The species of birds are especially valuable and unique. The park is home to a large number of birds. And, of course, the flavor that is inherent in the park. Here a parrot and a penguin can fight for a place in the sun.

New Zealand makes good money from visiting tourists. The entrance to the park is paid. Also, everything is done here for the convenience of tourists. For example, for a fee, you can admire the mountain plateau from a helicopter. There are also various types of escalators and boat trips. Needless to say, tourists are loved here and are always welcome.

New Zealand is a land of volcanoes and geysers, rain forests, snow-capped mountains and pastures. Inhabitants of this island country proud of her unique nature and make a lot of efforts to preserve ancient plant and animal species that are not able to independently adapt to human impact. A third of the country's area (over 5 million hectares) is protected areas, including 14 national parks covering all natural landscapes of the two islands - from mangroves in the tidal zone of the North Island, volcanoes of the Central Plateau to fern forests and fjords in the south.

The South Island is home to New Zealand's largest national park, Fiordland. The park occupies the northwest corner of the island; its length is 230 kilometers, the total area is 1200 thousand hectares. It was created in 1952, and now this territory is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

This park is very high level annual precipitation, which is generally typical for west coast South Island of New Zealand. The Milford Sound Fjord region receives 6,526 mm of precipitation annually, with 180 rainy days per year (data from 1969 to 1998). But humidity decreases rapidly towards the east. Te Anau already has 1200 mm of precipitation per year. The temperature is moderate, especially in low latitudes, the average maximum temperature in January is + 18.8 C, and in July the minimum temperature is +13 C. Fiordland is a sharp transition from the ecosystem of the ocean coast to high-mountain peaks and valleys protected from external influences. The mountains shelter the interior of the island from rain, while the windward side experiences all the vagaries of the weather.

The main natural attractions of the famous park are the Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound fjords, Lake Te Anau. An ancient Maori road runs through the entire park, as well as several more hiking trails open to the general public.

These fjords are a paradise for seabird-watching enthusiasts. Above the ocean, you can often see albatrosses, the colony of which is located nearby on Solander Island, as well as other representatives of the order of tube-nosed birds, prions (their other name is whale birds) and several species of petrels that nest or migrate in millions from the northern regions of the Pacific Ocean to nesting sites on Antarctic islands. One of the rarest penguins in the world, the New Zealand Crested Penguin breeds on coastal islands, as well as the small penguin common in New Zealand.

Also noteworthy are the lakes of the Fiordland National Park. Lake Manapuri is a great example of how humans can intelligently use the forces of nature while preserving its beauty. Its first name is Roto-ua, which translated from the Maori language means "rainy lake", later the lake was called Moturau ("many islands"), and the etymology modern name unknown.

The serene deep waters of Lake Te Anau are bordered by a lush virgin forest to the west. Exactly this large lake South Island and second largest in New Zealand. From here, excursions to fjords and other lakes begin.

Forests cover the entire territory of Fiordland Park - from the valleys to the very border of the tree-growing zone and the mountains. These are mainly beech forests. The herbivorous animals possum and red deer, brought here by the first colonizers, have spread to almost all parts of the park. They turned out to be the main factor in the change in the forest biotope. Deer trample the litter and eat up rare plant species, and ossums not only feed on the fruits of plants, eggs and chicks of ground nesting birds, but also spread tuberculosis.

The main treasure of the Fiordland forests is birds. It is home to the world's only population of takahe. These large flightless birds of the shepherd family were considered extinct, like many other birds in New Zealand, which became easy prey at first by the Maori, and then by dogs and other predators brought to the island. However, in 1948, scientists discovered these birds in the Murchison and Stewart Mountains. The population was immediately taken under protection and now numbers approximately 120 individuals.

Endangered species nest in the park under protection: kiwi, cocoa parrot, weka shepherd, New Zealand falcon and mohua (Warbler family).

Fiordland was also the final resting place of the world's only flightless kakapo parrot. Now these unique, nocturnal birds are bred on coastal islands where there are no predators.

Fiordland has been preserved in its pristine beauty due to its excessively mountainous terrain. The Darran Mountains, reaching 2,746 m, are covered with glaciers. But south of Darran, the height of the mountains does not exceed 2000 m and gradually decreases to 1000 - 1200 m. The underlying rock is mainly granite, gneiss and diorite with remnants of Tertiary limestone in some places in the east. These volcanic mountains (formed in the Ordovician, i.e. about 450 million years ago) are among the oldest in New Zealand. They are also the most resistant to erosion, and there are still traces of the last ice age, when their entire central part was covered with ice. The glacier tongues, flowing down from the high mountains mainly in the west and east, have hollowed out fjords and lakes (Te Anau, Manapuri, Hauroko, etc.), located symmetrically on the eastern and southern outskirts of the park. The result is a combination of deep valleys, sheer cliffs(sometimes up to 1500 m in height) and steep slopes. The depth of lakes and fjords exceeds 400 m, so the bottom of some lakes is below sea level.

The nature of Fiordland National Park has hardly been affected by human activities that are so destructive in other areas of the globe. For a long time, European settlements did not appear here, only the Maori tribes hunted birds, fished in the sea and mined punama (jade) in the rivers. Later, whalers and fur seal hunters found refuge in these places, they founded small settlements in the fjords.

In the fjord, only two boats ply at its opposite ends and out of sight of each other, which allows tourists to experience a feeling of loneliness in the middle of primeval nature. The annual rainfall here is 762 mm and more, but even on a rainy day, the fjord is still beautiful, water flows from nowhere, and their sound disappears in a mysterious haze.

Off the coast and in the open ocean, you can admire humpback and southern whales, sperm whales and killer whales. There are numerous New Zealand fur seals: their colonies are scattered along the entire coast, the largest is on Solander Island. Southern elephant seals occasionally appear here, and leopard seals migrate from their Antarctic breeding grounds. New Zealand sea lions, whose most numerous colonies are located in the Auckland Islands (hence their second scientific name is Auckland sea lions), have recently begun to settle here in small groups.

The trees are spread up to an altitude of about 1000 m above sea level. Above this line are the herbaceous communities of tussauds, formed mainly by sod-like characters. 35 species of mountain plants are endemic to the Fiordland, and most of them grow in the tussa zone. These are a number of types of cereals, celmisia, olearia, acyphyllum and buttercups.

The Doubtful Sound fjord, the deepest (421 m), the longest (40.4 km) and, according to some, the most beautiful New Zealand fjord, can only be reached by boat. When the engine turns off, travelers are enveloped in the secular silence of one of the most remote and beautiful corners of the planet. Captain James Cook, the first European to explore coastline The South Island suggested that it was a strait, but he was probably in a hurry and could not verify whether this was so. Therefore, he gave the fjord such a name (translated from English, the bay of Doubt).

As you know, Rudyard Kipling considered Milford Sound the eighth wonder of the world, but New Zealanders do not agree with his opinion - they put him in first or, in extreme cases, in second place. Hundreds of meters up, as far as the eye can see, the rocks rise, completely undamaged by time, wind, or water, as if the river had just yesterday cut its way through these masses. The Maori believed that these fjords were created by the giant mason Tute Rakiwanoa, and you would rather believe this legend than scientists investigating the geological events that led to the appearance of the perfect sculptures - rocks that rise vertically from the ocean. Whether it's cloudy or clear, Milford Sound is incredibly majestic. The 16 km long fjord is bordered by vertical granite cliffs up to 1220 m high, and waterfalls cascade from mountain range... In the center of the fjord is the pointed peak of Miter (1695 m), and its reflection in the mirror-like calm waters is one of the most famous and photographed species in this corner of the planet.

Fauna of Fiordland National Park. Fiordland is home to approximately 3,000 insect species, 10% of which are endemic. The brightly colored Alpine moths are especially diverse here. Other species include skree ueta (hairy alpine grasshopper) and 20 species of giant weevils.

Also here you can find flocks of young kea nestors attracted by human activity. These parrots are famous for their bloodthirsty inclinations. There is a widespread belief among farmers that they kill sheep by piercing their skull with a strong beak. If there were such cases, then they are isolated, although even unlucky tourists suffer from the beaks of the nestor kea.

The national park also includes the common white-eyed birds, fan-tails, New Zealand thuja, New Zealand fruit-eating pigeon, petroika and macomaco flycatchers. There is also an endemic to New Zealand - arrow wren. This small bird is remarkable in that it quickly assimilates biotopes modified by humans, unlike other species with narrow areas of distribution.

Another unique feature of the fjords is their underwater world... Steep cliffs go down to a depth of 100 - 450 m. A layer of fresh water located above saline sea ​​water, scatters light, and therefore usually deep-sea species of animals live in these places near the surface. Visiting the scientific research underwater observatory located here, you can see paintings that are rarely accessible to the human eye.

This national park is also home to many species of marine mammals. Flocks of playful bottlenose dolphins swim in Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound, and you can also meet the common (sharp-faced) common dolphin and the dark dolphin. And in the Te Vaevae Bay nearby you can see Hector's dolphins.

Fiordland National Park, the largest in New Zealand, was founded in 1952. It is located in the northwestern part of the South Island. Its length is 230 kilometers, the total area is about 1200 thousand hectares. A rare bird, the wingless sultan, is found here. It was considered extinct until 1947, when about 100 of these birds were found on the shores of Lake Te Anau, near Milford Sound. Almost as rare is the land-dwelling kakapo, or owl parrot. It looks like an owl and spends daylight hours in burrows.It is believed that this bird cannot fly. Before being taken into custody, he was also on the verge of extinction.