SOUTHERN SOUTH ISLAND
Southern South Island is the home of some New Zealand's most dramatic scenery. Largely green and drenched with rain, it is a region of fertile plains, sheep-filled pastures, walking tracks, sweeping bays, rugged forests, mountains and deeply indebted fjords. The independent New Zealanders that live here have been romanticized as Kiwi versions of American cowboys. The main tourist centers are Queenstown, Wanaka and Te Anau.
Most of the southern South Island is sparsely populated. Some parts of this region were mined during the 1860s gold rush and some evidence of the era—abandoned mines, machinery and water races—can be found in places like the Goldfield's Heritage Highway. Some of the ghost towns contain old saloons which have been turned into yuppie hotels. Intact towns like Clyde and Lawrence are part of the "Around the Block" historic pub trail.
Oamaru
Oamaru (about 100 south of Christchurch) is a small quaint town with many 19th century buildings and nice gardens. Yellow-eyed penguins can be seen at Bushy Park. Little blue penguins are found in the harbor area.
Oamaru Tourist Office: Oamaru Information Centre, Severn Street, ☎ (03)-434-5643, Fax: (03)-434-1657, E-mail: oamvin@nzhost.co.nz. Website www.timaru.com/information/index.html. Accommodation: Oamaru is a fairly small town with 2 ★★★★ hotels; 6 ★★★ hotels and motels; 3 ★★ hotels and motels; several ★ hotels and guest houses; one backpacker hotel; and one motor camp. How to Get There: Oamaru is a three hour drive south of Christchurch, one hour south of Timaru and a one and a half hours north of Dunedin. It is a stop on the Christchurch-Invercargill train. It can also be reached by bus from Christchurch, Dunedin and several other towns. There is a small airport nearby.
Moeraki Boulders (25 miles south of Oamaru) are famous almost-completely-spherical boulders located on an isolated beach. Weighing about four tons each and estimated to be four million years old, they were created from lime and salt concretions on the ocean floor and were thrust up to where they are now by tectonic forces.
Dunedin
Dunedin (70 miles south of Oamaru) is the home of a unique Scottish settlement. Often called "the Edinburgh of the South," it has 100,000 residents, most of Scottish descent, bagpipes, haggis and stately homes. Among its attractions are a chocolate factory tour, the Taieri Gorge Limited Excursion train, tours of the Wilson Whiskey Distillery, tours of the Speight Brewery, harbor cruises, rhododendron gardens, surf rafting, and harbor salmon fishing. There are also many antique shops featuring furniture, silver and china.
A short drive from the city on the Otago peninsula are two impressive stately homes: Glenfaloch, which is noted for its wooded garden, and Larnach Castle. At the end of the peninsula is large albatross colony, the largest mainland colony in the world for the world's largest flying bird. Trips are also organized trips to see blue penguins, yellow-eyed penguins, and other sea birds.
Dunedin Tourist Office: Dunedin Visitors Center, 48 The Octagon, ☎ (03)-474-3300, Fax: (03)-474-3311, E-mail: visitor.cenre@dcc.govt.nz. Website www.cityofdunedin.co.nz. Accommodation: Dunedin is a medium size town with a wide choice of accommodation options. It has one ★★★★★ hotel; 16 ★★★★ hotels; 14 ★★★ hotels and motels; 9 ★★ hotels and motels; several ★ hotels and guest houses; three backpacker hotels and hostels; and 6 motor camps and campgrounds. How to Get There: Dunedin is a 4½ hour drive south of Christchurch, and one and a half hours south of Oamaru and 4½ hours from Queenstown. It is a stop on the Christchurch-Ivercargill train. It can also be reached by bus from Christchurch, Queenstown and several other towns. There is a small airport nearby.
Catlins Coast (near Dunedin) features homestays with excursions to see sea lion and penguin colonies for about US$70.
Queenstown
Queenstown (on Lake Wakatipu) is one of the most developed tourist areas in New Zealand. Situated on the shores Lake Wakatipu near a mountain range called the Remarkables, it may the most thrill-sport- and adventure-tourism-oriented places on earth.
Queenstown Tourist Office: Intercity Travel Ltd., corner of Shotover and Camp Streets, ☎ (03)-442-8238, Fax: (03)-442-8907, E-mail: Website www.queenstown-nz.co.nz. Accommodation: Queenstown is a fairly large town with a wide choice of accommodation options. It has a half dozen ★★★★★ hotels and resorts; 20 ★★★★ hotels; 30 ★★★ hotels and motels; 10 ★★ hotels and motels; several ★ hotels and guest houses; three backpacker hotels and hostels; and 7 motor camps and campgrounds. How to Get There: Queenstown is a six hour drive from Christchurch and a 4½ hour drive from Dunedin and a 2½ hour drive from Te Anau. It can also be reached by bus from Christchurch, Dunedin and Te Anau and several other towns. There is a small airport nearby.
Lake Wakatipu (next to Queenstown) is a 48-mile-long, S-shaped lake that rises and falls three inches every few minutes. The Maori believe this phenomena is caused by a sleeping dragon at the bottom of the lake. Scientists attribute it to changing air pressure and mountain-channeled winds.
Activities in Queenstown
Among the activities that can enjoyed here are mountain climbing, bungy jumping, parasailing from a boat, paragliding off a mountain, helicopter and plane flightseeing, jetboating, white water rafting, mountain biking and four-wheel drive safaris.
Queenstown was the first place to develop bungy jumping as a money-making activity. More than 100,000 bungy jumpers have leapt off 140-foot-high Kawarau Bridge into a mountain river gorge with no serious injuries. Thousands more have taken an even bigger plunge from 230-foot-high Skippers Bridge, where reportedly at least one fatality has occurred.
Another thrill sport that got its start in the Queenstown area is jet-boating, which is done on highly-maneuverable river boats with a three-inch draw which allows the boat to skim through rapids and go where no other power boat would ever dream of going. The most popular jetboat ride in the Queenstown area is through rapids and past sheer cliffs in Shotover Canyon.
Skiing is done on the snowfields of Coronet Peak. White rafting trips are sponsored by Danes Shotover Rafts and Kawarau Raft Expeditions. And, New Zealand Nomad safaris offers half-day and full-day 4-wheel-drive trips to Skippers Canyon, Macetown, the Arrow Gorge and old gold mining areas. Flightseeing tours of Fiordland are also offered.
On the quieter side, there are secluded hiking and horseback-riding trails in the Remarkables and excursions to remote sheep station communities like Glenorchy, which have a school that at one time had only two students. Other sedate activities including cruising on Lake Wakatipu, tea drinking, garden touring, observing working sheep dogs, riding on double-decker buses, golfing, fishing, sampling wine on wine-tasting tours and eating at Queenstown's 75 restaurants, and shopping at crafts shops.
Fiordland
Fiordland (southwest of Queenstown and accessible from Te Anau) is New Zealand's second largest national park and, in the eyes of many people, its most beautiful. Located in the remote, uninhabited southwestern corner of country, it covers three million acres and is famous for hiking trails, fjord cruises and spectacular scenery, which features sheer rock walls, waterfalls, glacier-carved peaks.
Fiordland has been selected as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Its awesome mountains, river valleys, coastal sounds, and fjords were chiseled by glacial activity that lasted for about two million years and ended about 15,000 years ago. Most of the people that ventured here in the past were only passing through: Maori in search of greenstone and feathers and Europeans looking for gold and seals. Makeshift camps served as home.
Dense rain forest extend almost all the way up the steep mountains from the waterline to snowline at 3,000 feet. The heavy rains that drench the park almost every day turn the mountainsides and mossy cliffs into channels for thousands of streams and waterfalls. The water is surprisingly sediment-free because it picks up virtually no silt or sediment when it run through the rain forest, moss and granite rock but has a brownish-yellow tannin-stained color produced by leaching from dead leaves.
About 300,000 tourists visit Fiordland every year. More would no doubt visit it if it were near major towns and cities. Many of visitors enjoy the scenery in sightseeing flights aboard Piper Cub aircraft and Hughes 500 helicopters. The helicopter trips often land on a glacier, with deep crevasses and blue tinged ice, near 2,746-meter-high Mount Tutoko. Website www.fiordlandtravel.co.nz.
Mackenzie Basin and MacKenzie Pass are named after a Scottish shepherd who stole a thousand sheep and hid them in the basin. He was imprisoned, but he escaped several times before he was eventually pardoned. When he finally got out of jail he and his dog were folk heros.
Fjords in Fiordland
Fjords in Fiordland include Doubtful Sound, Milford Sound and the 12 other fjords that penetrate the southwestern side of South Island. They are home to schools of dolphins, colonies of fur seals and unusual sea life that thrive in the usual underwater environment, which consists of sheer cliffs and salt water under a 10- to 15-foot layer of fresh water produced by the stream run off. The salt and fresh water don't mix because fresh water is less dense than salt water and oceans that would cause them to mix don't penetrate the fjords.
Although the salt water is clear, the layer of cooler, tannin-stained fresh water above it creates dark water condition that are more common at greater depths. Many species found in the fjords—such as black coral trees, red corals, feather stars, yellow zoanthids, bioluminescent sea pens, cauliflower-like soft corals, bright-orange "dead man's fingers," glass sponges and brachipods—are usually found in much deeper water. Some species are found nowhere else on earth.
Milford Sound
Milford Sound (northern part of Fiordland National Park) is one of New Zealand's premier attractions. It is a two-mile-wide, 12-mile-long fjord that is flanked by towering densely-forested mountains and steep cliffs that are festooned with waterfalls that reach lengths of a 1,000 feet.
According to a Maori legend, Milford Sound was created by a an ax-wielding god who carving up New Zealand but was having trouble making clean cuts, which is why the features on the South Island are so jagged and severe. At Milford Sound he finally got his act together and was able to make a precise cut.
Geologist have another theory. They say that Milford Sound was created by massive glaciers that retreated for the last time about 15,000 years ago. As is true with the fjords of Scandinavia, the deepest part of Milford Sound is near its head (950 feet), where the glacial ice was thickest, and shallowest part is near the open sea (55 feet). Indenting the shores are tributary valleys.
The entrance to the fjord is extremely narrow. Captain Cook sailed by it twice without noticing it. The first Europeans to enter it were whalers and sealers who arrived in 1820s to escape the harsh conditions on the Tasman Sea. One Welshmen was reminded of home and named the body of water after Milford Haven, an inlet in Wales.
Most visitors explore the sound on boat cruise ships that sometimes slip behind waterfalls. From the decks of the ships it is not unusual to see dolphins and seals. The bus trip to get to Milford Sound is also very beautiful.
Mitre Peak is the most photographed feature of Milford Sound. Standing 5,560 feet tall, it is a dramatic, pyramid-shaped mountain that is often topped with snow.
Doubtful Sound
Doubtful Sound (about 45 miles south of Milford Sound) is 10 miles wide and 1,000 feet deep. A popular and impressive cruise boat and scuba diving site, it contains "The Gut," one of Fiordland's two major marine reserves. Situated between two islands, it has strong currents carry which carry divers past apricot sea pens, black coral trees and crimson corals.
Doubtful Sound is more difficult to get to than Milford Sound. Many people explore the sound in kayaks and travel up the Camelot River, which is sheltered by overhanging trees and rain forests foliage.
Dusky and Breaksea Sounds are home to large colonies of New Zealand fur seals. Once slaughtered to near extinction, the seals today are known for their playfulness and the mischievous tricks they play on scuba divers.
Mount Aspiring National Park has been selected as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Nearby are the glacier Wanaka and Hawea lakes. The town of Makaro is a good jumping off point of hikes into the park.
Te Anau
Te Anau is the gateway to Fiordland. It is a good base for exploring waterfalls, mountains and glowworm caves and the walking tracks that start nearby. The two largest tour operators, Fiordland Travel and Mount Cook Tours, offer bus tours, transportation to the trailheads, fjord and lake cruises and flightseeing tours.
Te Anau Tourist Office: Fiordland Travel Ltd., Te Anau Terrace, ☎ (03)-249-7419, Fax: (03)-249-7022, E-mail: teuvin@nzhost.co.nz. Website www.fiordlandtravel.co.nz. Accommodation: Te Anau is a fairly small town fairly developed for tourism. It has two ★★★★★ hotels and resorts; 5 ★★★★ hotels; 12 ★★★ hotels and motels; some ★★ and ★ hotels and guest houses; one backpacker hotel and hostel; and 5 motor camps and campgrounds. How to Get There: Te Anai is an 8½ hour drive from Christchurch, a four hour drive from Dunedin and a 2½ hour drive from Queenstown. It can also be reached by bus from Christchurch, Dunedin, Queenstown and several other towns. There is a small airport nearby.
Milford Track
Milford Track (south of Milford Sound) has been labeled as "The Finest Walk in the World." Primarily a valley walk with one big climb, it is 33 miles in length and takes most hikers three or four days to complete. The main hiking season is from November to March.
Along the route are glacier-carved fjords, lush temperate tropical rain forests, thick mosses, giant ferns, rushing rivers and streams, glaciers and snow capped peaks, and waterfalls that are so numerous that sometimes you can see several dozen in one view.
The pass through the mountains that made the Milford Track possible was discovered by Scotsman Quintin MacKinnin more than a century ago. But it was a woman writer, Blanche E. Baughamn, who made the track famous by giving it the "Finest Walk in the World" label in a 1907 article in English magazine about her experiences on the trail. Another woman writer, Carolyn Bennet Patterson, wrote about the track in January 1977 issue of National Geographic.
The Southern Pacific Hotel Corporation operates hotel-like lodges, with meals and hot showers, along the track. This allows hikers to enjoy the scenery without carrying heavy backpacks. Independent hikers with backpackers who use the trail stay in cabin-like huts, which are spaced between one and five miles apart the entire length of the trail.
These days so many independent hikers and lodge hikers want to hike the trail that booking to do it has to made months in advance. The huts and lodges are often packed, the trail is crowded and rules and regulation are strictly enforced.
Most hikers begin their trek at end of Lake Te Anau, which can be reached by bus and boat from the town of Te Anau, and do a one-mile "initiation walk" to Glade House. On the second day they hike to Pomplona Lodge. The third day, which is the hardest, involves a steep climb over MacKinnon Pass and a descent to Quinton Hut. From here a side trail leads to Sutherland Falls. The forth day is a long mostly downhill walk past many waterfalls to the village of Milford Sound. From here it is a three-hour bus ride back to Te Anau. The trek can also be done the other way.
Hikers should be prepared for a lot of rain. That is why there are so many waterfalls and lush forests. At it most extreme in can rain 10 inches in one day and 23 feet in a year. The wind can also be a problem. Sometimes it is so strong that it makes waterfalls reverse direction and flow into the sky.
Patterson witnessed this phenomena at the lip of Jervois Glacier, where she said she saw hundreds of storm-fed streams unite to form a waterfall that normally plunges 500 feet. Just as the water was going over the edge a gale-force wind, funneled by the valleys, lifted the water to Mount Elliot, in back of the glacier, where it fell as rain. The sandflies are often bad when it isn't raining.
Sutherland Falls
Sutherland Falls(reached by a sidetrail from the Milford Track) was thought for many years to be the tallest waterfall in the world. Named after its discoverer, the Scottish sealer and hermit Donald Sutherland, it originates from a glacier-fed, bowl-shaped lake, and was originally thought to be 3,300 feet high. Later when it was surveyed it was found to be "only" 1,904 feet high and it was noted that it hit two terraces on its way down. It is now considered the forth highest falls in the world.
However tall it is, it is still quite spectacular, but its full length is often hidden by mists and clouds. Hidden away deep in the mountains, it can only be reached on foot or seen by plane. Hollyford Valley Walk (north of Milford Sound) is a five to six day hike between the Tasman Sea and Mt. Aspiring National Park. The trail winds along parts of Lake McKerrow and passes through forests with giant ferns and moss-covered trees, snow-capped mountains, orchids, dense vegetation and extremely wet weather. On the white sandy beaches on the Tasman Sea hikers often see seals, penguins and dolphins. Road, air and water transportation to and from the trailhead is organized in Te Anau.
Routeburn Track
Routeburn Track (west of Milford Sound) is a 25-mile trail traversing mountains and river valleys in the Southern Alps. The hikes passes through two national parks, deep river gorges, alpine valleys, picturesque lakes, beech forests, fields of snowberries and white gentians, hanging lichens called "old man's beard," and mountains above bush line. There is spectacular sunshine when the weather is clear; the roaring waterfalls double along the trail in size when it rains.
Knowledgeable hikers say that the Routeburn Track is superior to the Milford Track because it is less crowded and less regulated, and much of the route follows ridge tops above bush line with breathtaking views if the weather is clear (often it is not though). The best views are from 4,200-foot-high Harris Saddle and the Hollyford Face, a three-hour stretch along a ridge and 3,000-foot-high clifftops. Centuries ago the Maori used the trail to search for greenstone.
The only problems are sandflies when the weather is clear and the fact the trail that become a stream when the rain is heavy. In the upper elevations snow it is not uncommon and hypothermia is a real concern in the often wet and cold conditions.
Independent hikers stay in crowded primitive huts while guided walkers on organized treks stay in a private lodges with sleeping rooms with bunk beds, dinning-lounge-areas, prepared meals, flush toilets and hot showers.
The Routeburn Tracks is a greater distance inland than the Milford Track and Hollyford Valley Walk. Road and water transportation to and from the trailhead is worked out in Te Anau. The Routeburn Track leaves from the same trailhead as the Greenstone Valley Walk and the two hikes can be combined into a week-long outing.
Greenstone Valley Walk (west of Milford Sound) is a three-day 22-mile trail that travels through similar terrain as the Routeburn Track and begins at the same trailhead but features much easier valley walking. The track follows an ancient Maori trail and cross the Main Divide. Greenstone Valley Walk and Routeburn Track hikes are sometimes combined into a hike called the Grand Traverse.
Ivercargill
Ivercargill (the southern-most city on South Island) has elegant buildings, tree lined streets and neat gardens. Most of surrounding countryside is sheep grazing land. To the west is Gatlins Forest Park which offers great scenery and outstanding walks.
Ivercargill Tourist Office: Fax: (03)-218-4415, E-mail: ivcvin@nzhost.co.nz. Website www.southland.org.nz. Accommodation: Ivercargill is a medium size town with a wide choice of accommodation options. It has one ★★★★★ hotel; 7 ★★★★ hotels; 15 ★★★ hotels and motels; 5 ★★ hotels and motels; several ★ hotels and guest houses; three backpacker hotels and hostels; and 10 motor camps and campgrounds. How to Get There: Ivercargill be reached on the 10 hour Southerner Train ride from Christchurch. It is a seven hour drive from Christchurch, a 3 hour drive from Dunedin and a 2½ hour drive from Queenstown. It can also be reached by bus from Christchurch, Dunedin, Queenstown and several other towns. There is a small airport nearby.
Stewart Island
Stewart Island (south of South Island) is a lonely place that is inhabited mostly by fisherman. It is often cold, windy and rainy. Activities include kiwi spotting, boat cruising, bushwalking and scuba diving. Lots of penguins and seals are here.
Stewart Island Tourist Office: Stewart Island Visitor's Center, Main Road, Half Moon Bay ☎ (02)-219-1218, Fax: (02)-219-1555, E-mail: stewartislandfc@doc.govt.nz. Website www.southland.org.nz.Accommodation: Stewart Island is a fairly small place with one expensive resort and a handful of hotels and guest houses and motor camps. How to Get There: 2½ hours from Bluff by ferry and 20 minutes by air from Ivercargill.
“Stewart Island — Rakiura — is New Zealand’s third largest island. It is located 30 kilometers south of Bluff, at the bottom of the South Island, across the often-turbulent Foveaux Strait, which takes an hour to cross by ferry and 20 minutes by light plane.
“Around 85 percent of the island’s 1,570 square kilometers is protected as a national park, and only 380 people call it home — most involved with the seafood industry, or providing tourist services.
“Sharing the seas with the human population is a significant population of great white sharks — estimates range between 59 and 120 animals. The great whites migrate here in late summer to early winter (peaking in autumn) to hunt baby seals, and until recently long-time islanders say they had a largely peaceful relationship with the giant fish, which became a protected species in New Zealand waters in 2007.
Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons
Text Sources: New Zealand Tourism Board, National Geographic, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Discover magazine, The Conversation, The New Yorker, Time, BBC, CNN, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, Wikipedia, The Guardian, and various books and other publications.
Last updated September 2025