Paradise in Aotearoa
There is a part of New Zealand so remote, humans have never touched the vast majority of its enormous landscape. It’s where you will find some of our most beautiful mountains, icebergs in emerald lakes, and bush that has only ever been walked through by the likes of moa and takahe¯.
This land is Fiordland, New Zealand’s forbidden paradise. It’s off-limits simply because mother nature has created formidable obstacles.
Most of the remote landscape has been carved by glaciers over millions of years, and its beauty is only matched by its inaccessibility.
However, there are a couple of ways to penetrate the fortress of Fiordland to experience the best scenery New Zealand has to offer.
Here’s how to explore one of the country’s last frontiers.
The forgotten fiord
While Milford Sound is known as the eighth wonder of the world, there is another fiord of arguably greater beauty, though it’s much harder to get to.
Doubtful Sound is larger than Milford, and the magnificent mountains that launch from the sea into the clouds have an unworldly presence as you glide quietly through the misty waterways.
The fiord was named Pa¯tea by early Ma¯ori, meaning ‘‘place of silence’’. And it’s so remarkably untouched, you’ll witness the same scenery that greeted Captain Cook in 1770. Aside from a wharf, and a tiny village servicing the boats, the landscape in every direction is entirely unspoilt, as it has been for millennia.
The adage that ‘‘with effort comes reward’’ is particularly true with Doubtful Sound. Getting there is quite an adventure.
You’ll first board a ferry across Lake Manapo¯uri, the second-deepest lake in the country. When you’re surrounded by mountains, it’s hard to imagine that the bottom of the lake is so deep it sits below sea level.
The cruise across the lake gives you a glimpse of 33 small islands, framed against the snowy peaks of the Southern Alps. At the end of the journey, you pass the Manapo¯uri Power Station, which has for decades provided power for the Tı¯wai Point aluminium smelter in Bluff.
From there, you hop on a bus to pass over the Southern Alps on a private road, the journey weaving through primeval peaks and enormous waterfalls.
You emerge at the serene Doubtful Sound. On many days you’ll find it shrouded in a moody mist.
The entire return journey takes seven hours, and you’ll walk away feeling like you briefly travelled to another world.
The highway to heaven
While I thoroughly recommend a trip to Doubtful Sound, can you really say you’re a Kiwi if you haven’t been to Milford Sound?
Before Covid-19, more than one million people were expected to experience Milford Sound this year, and we have only a limited time before the borders open again and the usual hordes of international tourists return.
Half of the magnificence of Milford is experienced before you even get there.
The two-hour drive from Te scenic highway in the country.
There are plenty of hidden gems to discover on the way, such as the Lake Marian Track, which passes a thunderous waterfall to eventually reach a picturesque alpine lake tucked away in a hanging valley.
There is also the popular Key Summit Track, which has just reopened after flood damage forced its closure in February. This two- to three-hour return trek encompasses some of the Routeburn Track, and offers stunning views of the ice-carved valleys below.
My favourite part of the drive is reaching the Homer Tunnel, which disappears into the side of sheer rock face. On the other side, you reach a winding valley of waterfalls (and if it’s been raining) it feels like you’re driving through a snow-covered lunar landscape, gushing with water in every direction. to choose just one trip, trust me, this is it.
The only way to really appreciate the magnitude of Fiordland is by air, and the 1-hour, 45-minute ¯DuskyA Doubtful Sound flight takes you above land most Kiwis will never see.
We started by weaving up through Lake Manapo¯uri, around mountain peaks, and landing on Mt Pender, where we could get out of the helicopter and marvel at Dusky Sound below, extending out to the West Coast with more than 350 islands.
We then took off, and descended deep into a maze of ice-formed valleys, passing roaring waterfalls, and flying through the tight Campbell’s Kingdom – a narrow hanging valley with a lake that looks like it’s out of adventure helicopter scene from a Mission: Impossible film.
After a further 30 minutes of spectacular airmanship – giving us an up-close view of the remotest parts of Fiordland – we reached Mt Kidd, where we could once again get out of the helicopter to look at an iceberg-filled lake hidden in the peak of a mountain. ¯TeAFromthere,itwasbackto nau, after quite possibly the best two hours you can spend in Aotearoa.
If you’re saving up for a helicopter trip to beat all others – this is it. nau is the most
The best helicopter trip
Flying in a helicopter is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for most of us, so if you want