Ata Whenua, Fiordland
Fiordland was named Ata Whenua by the Maori, indigenous people of New Zealand,
which translates to Shadowland in English.
Internationally recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage site, Ata Whenua Fiordland is one of the great natural areas of the world and is New Zealand’s largest national park, expanding across 3.1 million acres. In the south-western corner lies the remote Dusky Sound.
At Dusky Sound, it’s possible to explore the pristine shoreline of this World Heritage site and retrace the steps of explorer Captain Cook.
Captain Cook discovered Fiordland in 1770 while on a journey to find the long-gone great southern continent. On his second visit in 1773 aboard the HMS Resolution, he explored Dusky Sound and began the rich history of exploration and pioneering that is part of Ata Whenua Fiordland today.
Cook spent two months exploring the sound, and used it as a harbour, establishing workshops and a temporary observatory at astronomers point to accurately fix the position of NZ. The archaeological evidence of Cook’s visit can still be seen in the tree stumps cut by his crew to clear the site for the observatory, using the lumber for firewood.
Following Cook’s 1773 visit, Dusky Sound was consequently used as a harbour by other European navigators and merchant ships through into the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
From 1792 Dusky Sound became a favoured site for seal hunters, in that same year the seal hunters built New Zealand’s first house and ship at Anchor Island. Until the late 1820s, sealers continued to visit Dusky Sound, when the once-booming sealing trade faded. The evidence of the sealer's boats pulling ashore in Cascade Cove, Dusky Sound can still be viewed to this day.
History
Dusky Sound
The Pinnacle of Aotearoa’s Backyard
Internationally recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site, Ata Whenua Fiordland is one of the great natural areas of the world and is New Zealand’s largest national park, expanding across 3.1 million acres. In the south-western corner lies the remote Dusky Sound.
Land & Sea
Born from the great southern continent, millions of years ago.
Ata Whenua Fiordland’s raw, wild untouched beauty is one of the world’s greatest prodigies of natural environments; rich in history and changed only by nature. Containing the greatest extent of unmodified vegetation across New Zealand, coupled with significant populations of endemic plants and wildlife, Fiordland boasts some of the only remaining wild populations. A place beyond superlatives as sheer rockfaces drop into steep forested slopes, with the near-vertical rock walls plunging below the water's surface for several hundred meters.
Protected by the Southern Alps and the great Southern Ocean, its rich ecosystem and pristine landscapes feature large internal waterways and river catchments, cascading waterfalls, unique valleys, flourishing flora and fauna, and misty mountain passes. Boasting ten marine reserves throughout the national park, each is a fantastic example of a protected natural environment.
The climate below the surface is just as unique as that above the surface, with an intriguing combination of environmental factors creating an incredibly special world beneath the waters of the inner fiords.
Thanks to New Zealand’s highest annual rainfall, at seven to nine meters in Fiordland every year, the river systems and abundant waterfalls flow fresh water into the salty sea water below creating a unique blend. Dusky Sound itself is 40 kilometres (about 24.85 mi) in length, eight kilometres at its widest point and up to 450m deep at its deepest point. On top is a fresh water layer that varies in dept subject to recent rainfall and stained due to the tannins from the forest floor. This tannin stained water filters the sunlight, to the point that the marine life has adapted to populate closer to the surface, including many species that usually live a lot deeper. These include sea stars, rare black coral, sea sponges, lampshells, and a wide variety of fish. It is a diver’s paradise, offering a unique experience of the submarine wonders of Fiordland.
As an environment so dominated by the weather, Fiordland is incredible when experienced during a magnificent storm or a calm, balmy day, which only emphasizes the invigorating character of the region.
The sheer diversity and abundance of wildlife in Dusky Sound will astound you, as thriving in the dense native forests and extraordinary ocean environs there is so much to discover.
As one of the most magnificent archipelagos on the planet, and a location as remote as it gets in New Zealand, many of New Zealand’s rarest and most endangered species are found in Fiordland and Dusky Sound.
A wide range of native birds includes the Kakapo, Mohua, South Island Robin, Kakariki Karaka & South Island Saddleback. Populations of near extinction have been brought back through every restoration effort made here including on the work done to make Anchor Island a predator-free haven.
Dusky Sound and Fiordland are also home to brachiopods; primitive clam-like animals that have been bypassed by evolution, remaining unchanged for over 300 million years.
Alongside Fiordland’s fish communities live some of its special inhabitants – bottlenose dolphins, New Zealand fur seals (kekeno), Fiordland crested penguins (tawaki), and blue penguins (kororā). On a lucky day, you may even see whales, which swim by where the continental shelf comes close to the coast.