Southern beauty

Remote, ancient and staggeringly beautiful, New Zealand’s Fiordland beckons...

Unforgettable moments are everywhere in Fiordland. Home to the world-famous Milford Sound and its lesser-known but larger cousin, Doubtful Sound, this world’s-edge fantasy of glacier-carved valleys and rainforest-cloaked mountains is like nature with digital enhancement.

But it’s the sound – or rather the sound of silence – that provides one of the most memorable moments on RealNZ’s overnight cruise along the stunning Doubtful fjord.

“It’s one of the most amazing things I’ve experienced in my life,” says RealNZ chief executive Stephen England-Hall of the famously windless point where the boat stills its engine and passengers are treated to the purity of nature. “It’s humbling to be in this incredible landscape. Some people cry, it’s so moving.”

At the very bottom of New Zealand’s South Island, the dramatic UNESCO World Heritage-listed site remains a place of unadulterated grandeur thanks in part to RealNZ founders Les and Lady Olive Hutchins.

“They started taking people across Doubtful Sound in 1954 as a way of raising awareness of this area of indescribable beauty,” says England-Hall. “It was really a conservation business, funded by tourism. They helped lead the campaign to save Lake Manapouri from hydro-electric development.”

Even now, part of the proceeds from RealNZ ticket sales go towards conservation activities across southern New Zealand, such as the project to bring back vulnerable native birds, like the kākāpō and kiwi, to Fiordland’s Cooper Island. “RealNZ started with a passion for nature so it remains a fundamental part of our business that we actively protect this amazing part of the world.”

Whether on a day or overnight cruise, you’ll be enveloped in the wonder of a landscape that seems to exist outside of time. Bottlenose dolphins, seabirds and penguins are likely to pop by for a visit and you can take it as gospel that the region’s famously inclement weather is also a blessing.

“Whenever it rains, thousands of waterfalls will suddenly appear, cascading wildly down the cliff faces. It truly is spectacular.”