Fjordland - New Zealand National Park with relictics and sacred places Maori.

General information on Fjordland

• Full name: Fjordland National Park (English. Fiordland National Park.).
• Region: Soutland, New Zealand.
• Official Website - Fiordland ... NZ
• Category IUCN: II (National Park).
• Foundation date: 1952
• Area: 12 thousand 500 km2.
• Relief: Granite plateore, dissected by gorges, river valleys and depressions of the lakes, smoothly turning into a highlands, the coastline is strongly cut, with a large number of fjords.
• Visit - paid
• Climate: Sea, moderate.
• The purpose of the creation: the preservation of a unique natural landscape with relict fleet and the fauna times of ancient mainland Gondwan, as well as the sacred place of indigenous people of New Zealand

For visitors to Fjordland

In the mountain northwestern part of the island, the most largest islands National Park - "Fjordland" spread out.
Visiting the park is paid. The administrative center is located in the small town of Te Anau on the southeastern coast of the Lake of the same name. Here you can stay and relax in small cozy hotel and taste the traditional New Zealand dishes. In the town there is everything you need to receive tourists and comfortable holidayFor visiting the amazing places of "Fjordland" you can rent a car. On a special stand in a visit-center there is information about the history of the region, the peculiarities of its nature, and friendly employees will help choose various souvenirs.
From Te Anau in the freeway for 2.5 hours, it is possible that 120 km north of the city, or for 20 minutes, drive to Lake Manapowari, from which one of the excursion routes to the fjord Duska begins. Park staff can offer more than 10 excursion routes of different lengths and durability, the most famous of them - "Milford", "Holliford" and "Kepler".
With the beauty of "Fjordland" you can meet yourself, and you can take a guide conductor. On the territory for the night there are specially equipped campgrounds, however, in the summer it is recommended to book places in advance, but with this getting better.
Visitors to the park are offered to choose a variety of entertainment and types of recreation, including sightseeing flights on an light motor aircraft, cruises on a walking boat, sea kayaking, snorkeling, cycling and autosafari, fishing, animal observation, visiting the research underwater observatory.
You can get from the city of Danidine on the sea or by the highway. In Dunedine is international AirportBy flying from Australia, and in the town of Glenorchi, which is located close to the North-Eastern Border of the Park, a small airfield takes internal and charter flights.

History of the National Park Fjordland

Maori people are customary with the discovers of New Zealand. These immigrants from the East Islands began mastering the islands in the XI-XIV centuries. They caught fish here, hunted on birds, they were engaged in lit-firing agriculture and mined Punama (jade) in the rivers. The name of the people means "normal", or "ordinary". In Maori mythology, these words are distinguished by people from perfume.
The first European, who saw in 1642 the shores of New Zealand Islands, was Abel Tasman, and in 1768 they were examined by James Cook. Soon, ships with immigrants and a kitoboy, which began to build their settlements and forts on the coast, were revealed to this part of Oceania.
Since 1840, after signing a contract between Maori and England, the territory owns the British Crown while maintaining all the rights of the indigenous people of New Zealand. In 1907, New Zealand became an independent dominion.
The government of the country applies many efforts to save unique nature The islands and in 1952 created the National Park "Fjordland". In 1986 he entered the list of objects World Heritage UNESCO.

Walk through Fjordland

. Here, wet tropical forests are adjacent to glaciers and snowballs, and multicolored parrots and fluffy kiwi - with the yuris penguins.
The ecosystems of the coast of the ocean sharply move to mountain ranges and protected from various external influences to valleys. Rudyard Kipling called this territory the eighth miracle of the world.
The reason for the pristine preservation of the nature of these places lies in the meditarian relief. The peaks of the Darran massif, which focuses the environmental territory, rise by 2746 m and almost all covered with snowflakes or glaciers. This array is one of the most ancient in New Zealand, he appeared, as a result of volcanic processes 450 million years ago. The role of the underlying rock is performed by granite, gneis and partially dioritis with the remains of tertiary limestone, so the mountains are resistant to erosion. The next ice period is noticeable on their slopes, then there was a solid ice field.

By the south, the height of the mountain range above sea level gradually decreases to 1000-1200 meters. Stacking with highly, the languages \u200b\u200bof the glacier in the western and eastern part of the park almost symmetrically littered the majestic fjords and numerous lakes whose depth exceeds 400 m. The bottom of some of the lakes is even lower than the sea level.
The largest Lakes Park - Te Anau, Manapoury, Hauroko, Monovia and Lomarity. Te-Ana in the magnitude of the second in New Zealand, its length is 65 km. Most excursion routes begins from it.
Lake Manapoury formed about 20 thousand years ago, this is the second in the depths of the lake in the country.
Translated from the Maori language, his name means "Lake of the sad heart". Maori also referred to him by Rotoau - "rainy lake" and Moturau - "Lake Thousands of Islands", which is well characterized by the territory of the reservoir: there are 34 islands in its water area, of which 22 came down with a dense forest.
In total, about 15 large and many small fjords on the territory of "Fjordland".
Milford, Dutful, George, Brex, Daska, can be attributed to the largest and most beautiful. Dutful is considered the longest, that is, the "bay of doubt". So James Cook called him, who believed that it was still a strait, but could not test his hypothesis. You can only get to the fjord on the boat.
In the water area of \u200b\u200bthe park between fjords, only two boats run, always trying to hold out the field of direct visibility of each other. This allows visitors to merge as much as possible with nature, feel its greatness, absorb the beauty of unique places. By the way, about 450,000 people attend the National Park every year.
On the territory of "Fjordland" there are two permanent waterfalls: Sterling and Lady Bowen, and on the Arthur River there is the highest waterfall of the park - Sutherland. It can be seen, walking along the path leading to Milford. During the rains, many small waterfalls are formed, but their water is spread with wind and does not always reach the Earth.
We will be interested in travelers and archaeological monuments, especially the ancient Maori road, passing through the entire environmental territory.

Wonders of Nature Fjordland Park

The width of the most beautiful and majestic Fjord Park, Milford Sound, located in the north-west of "Fjordland", at the merger site with the Tasmann Sea is about 3 km. Before the sea waters flooded this place, here was an educated valley with steep granite rocks.
The average height of the mountains surrounding the fjord is about 1220 m. The center is the highest of them - Peak Mitre. Pick elephant outlines resembles the head of this animal, and the peak of the lion looks like a king of the beast on the rear paws.
The indigenous people call the piopiotha fjord in honor of the extinct Peopio (New Zealand Drozda). According to the legend, the demigod-receiving, Maui tried to conquer in the unequal battle of immortality for all people, but in a fight with the hostess of the sea died. His right companion Piio's bird flew for a long time on the bay, mourning the death of the hero and a friend.

• 1695 meters - Peak Mitre
• 1517 meters - Elephant Peak
• 1302 meters - peak lion

Some more interesting things:

• Maori's ancestors arrived on the islands from their Praodina Havaiki. In each of the seven boats, according to legend, there was a tribe with the leader
• The males of the southern sea elephants on the nose there is a skin bag that is inflated during fighting or marriage playing
• KEA - disappearing, inhabit mountain valleys with beech forests, endemic of New Zealand, is included in the Red Book of IUCN
• Fjord Milford Sound - Pearl of the West Coast of the South Island
• Land of fjords - so translates the name of the park

Fjordland vegetable world

Flore "Fjordland" almost did not suffer from human vital activity. Thanks to the humid climate, there is an abundance of vegetation: only more than 7,000 species.
Wet evergreen forests cover almost the entire territory of "Fjordland" from the valleys and to the mountains at an altitude to a kilometer over the UR. seas. These are mainly beech forests, which meet the Sanctarctic Beech (Nothofagus MenziesII) to 800 years.
Many in the Lavrov Park (Laurus SPP.), Nogoplodnikov (Podocarpus SPP.), Rosaceae, Mirtaceae (Myrtaceae). In the wet parts of the park in the forest of thick underols, consisting of numerous lian, shrubs, tree fern, moss and lichen.
Above the forest zone is the mountain step, or Tussai. Here they grow mainly tree signs. In Fjordland, 35 species of plants (mountain) refer to its endemics, of which most are found in the zones of Tusssoks. These are representatives of such birth like Atzifilla (Aciphyllla), Olairia (Olearia), Hiongano (Festuca), Wizmisia (Celmisia), Mattik (Poa) and Butter (Ranunculus).
The main feature of the "Fjordland" is that nowhere else on the planet glaciers do not descend so close to the border of evergreen wet forests. The contrast of the blossom-blessing glacial language with its bordering the base of thick thickets from the laurel (Laurus Sp.), Myrtoideae and South Beech (Nothofagus Menziesii) amazing. In the valleys of the park there are many swamps with vegetation inherent in them.

Fjordland animals

Fauna national Park Amazing. First of all, Fjordland is the kingdom of birds. In his borders lives the greatest number From the Pernaya New Zealand, including their rarest representatives, like such (this is Porphyrio HochStetteri) and still Cocapo (Strigops Habroptilus).
Endemics include South Kiwi (Apteryx Australis), Yolkoloby Auriceps (Cyanoramphus Auriceps), Rocky New Zealand Wheezing (Xenicus Gilviventris), Shepherd-Wake (Galliralus Australis), Crivonous Tower (AnaRhisitta Chloris), Yellow (Mohoua OchroCephala), Kea (Nestor Notabilis).
A few types of penguins are inhabited by the foot of the fjords (Eudyptes Pachyrhynchus), and small (Eudyptes minor) and small (Eudyptes minor). Over sometimes you can see Albatrosov (Diomedea Sp.) And about five types of petrels (Procellariidae).
The coast of the island in the sea can be admired to the ossap (Physter Catodon), hobbied whales (Megaptera novaengliae) and southern smooth (Eubalaena Australis).
Along the coast is a major colonies of New Zealand Sea Kitics (Arctocephalus Forsteri) and relatively rare New Zealand Naval Lviv (PhoCarctos Hookeri). Sometimes sea leopards appear here (Hydrurga Leptonyx) and South Sea Elephants (Mirounga LEONINA).
In the Bay of Dutful Sound and Milford Sound float Australian Australian (Tursiops Australis), Dark Dolphins (Lagnorhynchus Obscurus), Delphin Delphis and Delphin Hectori (Cephalorhynchus Hectori).
There are about 3,000 types of insects in the National Park, of which 10% - endemics. Very interesting fireflies, such as mushroom mosquitoes (ARACHNOCAMPA LUMINOSA).
Does not leave indifferent and underwater world of fjords. The layers of fresh water are above sea, they dissipate the light, so deep-sea fish live almost on the surface, and visitors of the park can admire them from the boat. It is worth mentioning about a variety of tropical sponges (Porifera), mollusks (Mollusca), corals (Anthozoa). The park is the largest colony of black corals (Antipatharia).
In the "Fjordland" once brought the noble deer (Cervus Elaphus), Kusks (Phalanger SPP.) And rats (Rattus SPP.). They very negatively affect the aboriginal fauna of the National Park.

The New Zealand Islands is full, and the Fjordland Park is one of the best.

The most beautiful, most beautiful place in New Zealand is Fjordland. The place from which the Spirit is captured, which admires the stronger than anywhere in New Zealand. Literally, the Fjordland is translated as the "country of phyrds", and the truth of this name is confirmed by the presence of more than thirty fjords in this reserve. Yes, yes, you were not mistaken, Fjordland - New Zealand National Reserve and, perhaps, the best of all 14 reserves.

The origin of Fjordland

Many thousand years ago in the area there was a colossal size of the glacier. There was no magnificent fjords, no steep, overgrown with green trees, hillside, nor long winding rivers. There was only a huge glacier. Years passed, the centuries flew, the ambient temperature rose, and the glacier began to sink and sink down. Having dropped, the glacier to his unpredictive titanic mass endured in the rocks, on which he was, long and, porous, deep valleys, which, filled with water, and became in the future with numerous fjords and winding rivers.

Features of Fjordland

One of the interesting features of the Fjordland is that only here and anywhere else on the entire planet, wild green forests are in an extreme close neighborhood with ancient glaciers. It is very strange and at the same time an exciting and beautiful sight - a combination of juicy green forests and the dark blue strata of glaciers. Most deep place Fjordland - Lake Vakatipu, its maximum depth is 420 meters.

Another feature of the Fjordland is that only in these forests there is a rarest kind of parrot on the ground - the Sovic parrot-Kakapapo. This parrot is powered by worms and snails, and lives in earthen norah. In addition to him, there are also such unusual birds like a yellow crow (the best songbird, living in the mountains), Tui and Emerald parrot.

But the main feature is, of course, majestic and beautiful fjords. Among their diversity, Milford Sound and Dutful-Sunda are among the most famous and beautiful. Each of them has their own fans and fans, and each of the fans proves that it is his fjord - the best. Is this not an indication that both fjords are the best?

Dutful Sound - Sunset

Mirror Lake "Mirror Lake" in Milford Sound

How to get

You can get to Milford Sound from Danidin, both land and sea. If you somehow turned out to be a lake Vakatipu, then a narrow road on the mountain gorge is leading to Milford Road from him - Milford Road (State Highway 94). If you are not a fan of mountain transitions, you can ride the Milphor-Sound on a steamer, which comes out of Danidin, Christchurch, Auckland and Wellington.

The country of fjords or fjordland (fiordland) is so long called the territory located in the south-west of New Zealand. In 1952, the Fiordland National Park was created on this territory (Fiordland National Park), the largest in New Zealand. It is more than 12.5 thousand square kilometers. Here are the symbols of all New Zealand as Lake Manpowers and those Anau, Sutherland Waterfall, Sound Fjord ...

Increased map of the National Park Fjordland. (Google Maps)

Sorry, the map is temporarily unavailable

Fjordland National Park on google map Maps.

The country of fjords is mainly mountains. They are a continuation of the southern Alps and their height reaches 3000 meters. In the distant past, this territory was covered with a huge glacier who taja cut off the slopes of this mountain Ridge Deep gorges, forming many picturesque fjord bays and long narrow lakes.
New Zealand Mother Nature generously gave beauty. And the best and most picturesque landscapes of New Zealand are concentrated here - in the country of fjords.

Even who falls into these edges for the first time, it seems that today a person's leg did not go through this earth. One of the features of the coast of the Fjordland is that the rocks forming the bays are sharply in the water and it seems that the place for landing on the shore is simply not possible.
Another feature of these places is the surprisingly close neighborhood of the forest with glaciers. Another such place where the southern beech, Laurea, Myrth ... so closely adjacent to the snow and crystal stratum, perhaps, you will no longer find on Earth.

Unique are and many mountain lakes Country fjords. Lakes are long and narrow. It seems that the rocks, steeply towering over their water stroke to a height of two kilometers, are also compressing them on both sides. So, for example, Lake Whicatype is the deepest and long in Fjordland. From the North-West to the south-east of the island, it stretches almost 100 km, and its depth reaches 400 meters. Already 25 rivers falls into Lake Wakatipu. These rivers do not have names. On the maps they are denoted by the help of ordinal numbers. Every five minutes, water in the lake rises and dropped at 7.5 cm again. Lake seems to breathe. The local ancient legend says that this is a heart of a giant hidden at the bottom of the lake. New Zealanders call the lake "heart" of this island. Scientists and today have no explanation for this unique phenomenon Nature.
Animals inhabiting the Fjordland National Park are another its unique feature. Fiodeland forests are inhabited by almost 700 species of endemic animals and plants. You will not meet such exotic animals and plants anywhere except the Fjordland National Park.
In the forests of Fjordland, there is a large, with unusual haggards, a parrot-predator KEA, amazing beauty of the Emerald Parrot, a cocoa cocoa parrot, singing birds of the Tui and Yellow Crow.

The number of cocoa's Soviet parrots comes up to 125 individuals. Cacapo is the only form of parrots that lead a nightlife, and in the afternoon they are hiding in their minks.
From recently began to increase the population of almost extinct birds. Takaki is not able to fly a bird, the size of a goose. She has a beautiful plumage and bright red short thick beak.

In roads you can meet an interesting sign: Penguin, enclosed in a red circle. In such a way, employees of road service means the place of transition living in the Fjordland of small cute penguins.

Outwardly, they are similar to their polar rhodations, but a lifestyle heavily different from them. They place their nests a few kilometers from the coast and make every day. hiking walk To the sea, where they find food and their cubs.

Video with kiwi. Kiwi are small outless birds, they can only be found in New Zealand.

On the greater territory of the Fjordland simply does not exist roads. Therefore, those who came to tourists, in hiking, get to most of the remote sites of the National Park, using the services of guide-conductors.

It should be noted that these hiking They are safe for the life and health of tourists, as there are no major predators on the island, and poisonous animals.
For those unprepared to the mountain campaigns on the fjords, probably will be more suitable for driving on the boat.

Such trips are no less interesting and allow you to fully enjoy all the unique landscapes and fantastic beauty of the country of fjords.
The country of fjords is a place where many Wonders of Nature gathered together. The most real country of miracles!

In 1990, the Fjordland National Park is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. And together with Westland, Mount Cook and Moored Aspairing National Parks, the World Heritage Zone Te-Vakhipunamu is constituted.

At the end of a little video:

Flying on a helicopter over beautiful waterfalls, lakes and snowy mountain peaks Around Milford Sound in New Zealand (northern part of the Fjordland National Park).

Fjordland - New Zealand National Park. On its territory 12,500 km 2 is the largest in the country. Fjordland National Park founded in 1952. On the Western borders, the park limits the fiorda of the Tasmanov of the sea, and on the east side limit the lakes. Lakes in Fjordland are some of the deepest in New Zealand, and the mountains up to 2746 meters high.

Together with National Parks, Mount Cook, Westland and Mount Aspairing Fjordland forms the World Heritage Zone Te-Vakhipunam. The park is one of the ancient natural complexes of the planet. The nature of these is the alpine valleys and subtropical forests, so that the park is dramatically distinguished from the rest of the island. Previously, this area was covered with glaciers, which formed fjords and gorges.

Arrivals of tourists amazing the lack of human activity. As if these places did not even attend never. It's hard to find a suitable place for housing. In addition, the surprisingly neighborhood of glaciers with evergreen forests.

Separate article deserve lakes of the National Park, because they have a rich history. One of the deepest and long of them is Oakatipu. Its length is more than 100 km, and the depth comes to 400 meters. 25 rivers carry their water without names, they simply numbered on the map. Because of its own characteristics, the lake is sometimes called the "heart of the South Island". Water in the lake approximately every 5 minutes rises by 7 cm and almost immediately returns to the limit. There was still a reasonable explanation to this phenomenon. But local residents have a explanation of this - a giant heart beats there.

According to ancient Maori legend, the daughter of the leader manat lived here, which fell in love with the Matakauri hunter. Once a mighty giant was attacked on their tribe and captured a girl. Then he called on all the warriors and ordered them to save Manat, and to the one who saved her, promised to give in wives. All besides Matakauri were frightened in Giant and had to go to the monster to death alone. Raised high in the mountains, the hunter found the daughter of the leader tied to the tree, and the Giant slept nearby. The young man divered the girl to the tribe, and he returned to the mountains, how much the giant must be killed, otherwise he will take revenge. While the giant slept, to be reserved on the mountains - Matakauri looked at his twig a few days. He's a pathery of a brushwood and a flame embraced a giant, smoking the Sonza clouded, and the heat was so strong that the land was burned, forming a huge depression. Over time, the shower and the water of the mountain rivers filled the pit, which, after the name of the Lake Oakatipu. But the mighty heart remained from the giant, lying deep under water and each of his blow water into the lake rises and immediately descends.

In the National Park, unique birds live - rare parrots-cocoa, living under the ground, feeding out worms and snails. Also here is a predatory parrot KEA, who can cut the carcass of the dead sheep to the skeleton. They almost completely destroyed farmers, because they thought Kea were sitting on the back of the sheep and alive them burst into parts. Previously, there were no corbals with freezers, so the current was sent to the UK, and the Camp was thrown out, the winged "Sanitars" was fed. According to Zoologists, KEA does not attack living sheep.

Southern Island. Once called the "habitat of Taki." TATHATE - Bird with a gossiya and unable to fly. It highlights bright and magnificent plumage, powerful legs and short thick beak red. In the arrival of Europeans, it was defended. But in 1948, near Lake Te-Anau Naturalist-Lover Orbell found a bird that was previously extinct. This has become one of the krpnaya ornithological discoveries of the 20th century.

In addition to these rare birds, other birds are found in the Fjordland National Park: Kiwi, rocky wrappers, cosososleva, New Zealand Ducks, Heclars, Yellow Crow, many species of parrots. For them, there are many types of food, among which there are 3000 insects. Of these, 10% can be found exclusively in the National Park. It was possible to adapt the deer, sickles, rats, wapiti delivered by Europeans. In the waters of fjords, you can meet the cats, sponges, mollusks, albatrosters, petrels, penguins, among which the rare New Zealand Crested Penguin.

The Fjordland Mountain Ridges are considered one of the most wet areas in the world. Here almost 200 days a year pour rains that are homogeneously fall out throughout the year. Because of which in fjords all the time there is a layer of fresh water 40 meters. average temperature July - 5 ° C, and in January - 23 ° C.

National Park of the South-West Island of South New Zealand .. Created in 1904, an area of \u200b\u200b1.2 million hectares. Protected natural complexes Wet evergreen forests with tree-like ferns, laurels, nicknames, rustic, pool, pool and lianami, complexes of subtropical forests with southern beech and shrub thickets, as well as alpine and subalpine meadows on the slopes of the South Alps. The park is known for its unique fauna, among which the rare parrot of Kea, the Forest Parrot of Kaka or the Green Nestor, living in the Nora, the Sovic Parrot, the Best Singer of New Zealand Forests - Bird Tui (Shrub Malinovka) and Shepherd Taki, until recently, who was considered extinct and discovered only in One of the Valleys of the Fjordland, as well as the symbol of the country is a blatant bird Kiwi and a yellow-eyed penguin. In the waters of the coast there are dolphins and sea seals. A special color of the park gives an exclusively picturesque landscape of the coast rugged by deep fjords, to which the mighty glaciers are descended from the mountains, in places reaching a height of 300 m.

Fjordland
The extreme southwest of the Southern Island of New Zealand is called a fjordland-country fjords. Nature here is very different from hilly plateau North IslandsOver which the low cones of young volcanoes are tested on the lowest cones. Southern Island is predominantly a mountainous country, which is the ridge of which is the powerful chain of the southern Alps, which takes his snow vertices to almost 4 km height.

The huge glacier covered the huge glacier in the slopes of the ridge deeply awesome gorges in which one and a half of the tens of narrow long lakes were formed and at least thirty deep fjord bays that gave the name of this picturesque corner of the country. New Zealand is extremely rich in natural beauty, but Fjordland's landscapes are the most beautiful thing that can be seen in this fabulous edge, and maybe on our entire planet. The traveler who came here at the first moment loses the gift of speech, when the ship enters into the cliffs surrounded by kilometer walls of the cliffs and takes the course of deep into the island, where snow whites on the slopes of the southern Alps.

And the farther the motor ship is floating, the longer the tourist is familiar with the amazing and diverse nature of the Fjordlandland, the stronger covers his admiration for the magical beauty of the surrounding places. And it is difficult to decide what the most picturesque, the most interesting, the 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 mosshigh in the world ... twenty-moving mountains Thousand years ago, giant glacial languages \u200b\u200bwere cut into the rocky shores of the southern island. His main decoration - flowing at a time by 50 km deep into the winding fjords, in which three hundredth waterfalls will be overthrown. And in the vicinity of Fjord Milford Sound Waterfall Saterland, whose height reaches almost six hundred meters, is among the top five on our planet.

From no less beautiful fjords of Norway or South Chile, New Zealand bays are beneficial to the complete lack of traces of human activity. Their shores go to the water so cool that it is not easy for them to find a place not only for the village, but also for the tourist tent. Second feature Fjordland - an unusually close neighborhood of forests of his coast with mountain glaciers. Nowhere else on the Earth of the River Ice is not descended directly to the border of wet evergreen forests. The contrast of a bluish-tied-up cracks of the semi-kilometer thickness of the glacier with the bakery of its footballs from the Mirate, the southern beech and laurel literally affects the traveler who saw the cruise ship from the deck into the binoculars of the proud slopes of the majestic South Alps ridge.

Meanwhile, the seemingly definiteness of this picture is easily explained. Because of the steepness of the Western Facade of the South Alps, New Zealand glaciers move much faster than their congratulations somewhere in Pyrenees or Himalayas. Some of them, such as the Tasman Glacier, are moving down half meter daily. Before melting, the language of the glacier has time to come down sometimes to a height of 300 m above sea level. And the upper boundary of the forests on this latitude reaches 1000 m. As a result, ice and tropical forests meet with each other, ignoring the "intermediaries" like alpine meadows or mountain tundra.

Even more beautiful than the numerous mountain lakes of the southern Alps. Narrow, extended and squeezed rocky slopes, rising by 1.5-2 km above their blue waters, they resemble the reservoirs of the Taimyr Plateau Puratorna in Siberia. But, of course, the forests surrounding Lake Te-Anau, Wakatipu, Uanaka, Okhau or Rakaiia, is immeasurably richer, thicker, above and luxurious than Poultaya larchaeons. Valley in depth mountain areas Absolutely not populated. In many places, Fjordland has not yet stepped a man's leg. And each new expedition opens the previously unknown peaks, waterfalls, lakes and passes here.

The longest lake in New Zealand - Waicatipu - stretched from the northwest to the southeast almost 100 km, cutting the ridge with a blue transverse zigzag. Its depth reaches 400 m. There are so many rivers in Waicatipu, in the lack of people who did not have local names that the topographers prefer not to exercise fantasy, but to designate them on a map simply by sequence numbers: from the first to twenty-fifth. A mysterious natural phenomenon is connected with this lake, which has not yet found science. Water in it every five minutes then rises to seven and a half centimeters, then lowers until the previous level. The lake is like breathing. New Zealanders love to say that the heart of the southern island beats under the waters of Wicatipu.

But how does the ancient Maori legend explains the riddle of the Lake Lake: "Long-time," the daughter of the mother of the leader manat and a brave young hunter and a Matakauri, lived in one of the valleys of the island. The young man and the girl fell in love with each other, but the trouble happened - attacked them the evil Giant Mataau and took the manat to his possessions, far deep into the snow-covered mountains. In desperation, the old leader, the father of the girl, turned to all the warriors of the tribe, begging them to save their daughter. The one who will save the girl, he promised to give it to his wife. None of the men decided to join the fight with Giant, and only Matakauri ventured for this desperate matter. The young bench rose highly in the mountains and found a sleeping giant there, and next to him - a manat attached to the tree. Freeing his beloved, he descended to her village, but he did not stay there with a girl, and returned to the mountains. After all, it was clear that, waking up, the evil gigan will come back to the valley and deal with the kidnapper, and the girl will take back.

And Matakauri decided to destroy the giant. While he slept, putting his head on one mountain, and his feet - on the other two, the young man began to carry from the forest of the twig, bruising and logs and laid the sleeping giant. Matakauri worked many days and nights. Then, lightening about a friend Two pieces of wood, he mined the fire and set fire to the fire. The flame enveloped the giant, and the smoke closed the sun. The heat from a huge campfire was so strong that the flame burned the earth. A giant vpadina was formed, a giant body resembling the outlines. The rains and mountain rivers filled it with water and turned into a lake that people called Oakatipu. And only the heart of the giant is not burned. It lies deep at the bottom of the lake and beats until now. And with each of his blow, lake waters are raised, then fall ... "

Over the past decades, such many rare birds have been found in the deaf corners of the country of fjords that the country's authorities decided to create one of the largest national parks in the world in a million two hundred thousand hectares in this part of the world. (This is more than the whole territory of Lebanon or Cyprus.) In the forests of Pjordland Park, such unicumes live such as the rarest owl parrot-cocapa, inhabitants in earthen nora and feed on snail and worms, or a huge and unusual Parrot Parrot parrot, capable , like the African vulture, to cut the carcasses of the fallen sheep, leaving only skeletons from them.

Kea was practically destroyed in other places in New Zealand, as the farmers workers believed that he could sit right on the sheep's backs and pull out the pieces of meat straight out of living animals, and therefore ruthlessly destroyed a beautiful bird, for the first time, by the way, the meat introduced only after The appearance of Europeans. After all, before that, in New Zealand, there were no mammals at all, except for the bats, and only settlers-the British taught KEA to an unusual diet. The fact is that until the invention of refrigerator vessels, New Zealand residents were sent to England only sheep wool, and carcasses were thrown out. Yes, and then around the battle enough foods for the fusion existence of a dozen of the winged "Sanitars". However, the accusation of attacks on living sheep most zoologists categorically reject.

There are also a beautiful emerald parrot, a vigorous bird of alpine forests, prosecically referred to as the Yellow Voronene, is also found in the mountain bowls of the Fjordland. And in 1948, on the shores of Lake Te-Anau, Orbell's naturalist Lovel discovered the previously extinct bird such that the herd was the largest ornithological discovery of the XX century. Taka is a fluttering bird with a large goose. It is distinguished by bright, beautiful plumage, strong legs and short thick bright red beak. Once, before the arrival of Europeans, there were so many things on the southern island that all west Coast Maori called "the place where they live."

Migrants from England hunting for unable to fly delicious game fell to taste, and at the end of the XIX century hunters stopped meeting the same. It was believed that they were fully exterminated, but after more than half a century it turned out that several pairs of unique birds found themselves on the shores of the hard to reach mountain Lake. Now the area of \u200b\u200btheir habitat is under strict guard, and a rare type of type seems to be saved from death.

Some zoologists believe that in the impregnable corners of the Fjordland, the three-meter giants of the New Zealand fauna could be survived. The disappeared several centuries ago, they were the largest birds of the Earth, along with also extinct in the inhabitant of Madagascar - a giant ostrich-epiornis. Alas, the hopes of optimists are most likely groundless. Moa traces still failed.

And on the motorways of the southern part of the island, you can often see an unusual road sign depicting a prisoner in a red circle of a penguin. So warns the road service on the places of transition of yellow-eyed penguins - small cute birds, very unlike lifestyle on their polar fellow. They arrange nests in the forest, a few kilometers from the coast, and daily leisurely walk to the sea, where they get the food of the afraid of themselves and their offspring.

From the southernmost in New Zealand major city Danidin to the country of fjords can be reached by land and sea. In the most popular Fjordland Bay - Milford Sound - leads from Lake Uaicatip a narrow road along amazing beauty of the gorge. New Zealanders nicknamed the path of wonders. The very developed legends of the lake is associated with the culminated areas. eastern coast An old tract laid by the gold kits. At one time, Oakatipu experienced the period of "gold fever", when on his shores, like mushrooms, arose tent corks And golden fores. But the reserves of the precious metal soon ended, and now only has become tourist old road Reminds of past times.

No less interesting, and more accessible to tourist unprepared for mountain campaigns on a motor ship. Such a swimming will make it possible regardless of the weather (which is replete with rains and fogs) to enjoy fantastic scenery of the country of fjords and, in particular, to visit the Duski-Sound Highlaskaya Island, where two extreme centuries ago were a Cook Expedition Camp, which made the first card The coast of Fjordland. He called the name of his vehicle resolist and the island, which closes the hospitable and picturesque bay from the autumn storms.

And in a hundred miles to the north, it crashes 40 km deep into the coast, the main attraction of Fjordland is a famous Milford Sound. And when the ship passes the guarding entrance to him Mithra, ascended his vertex on 1700 m above the sea, and it will be surrounded by steep wooded slopes of coastal ridges, the traveler begins to seem to seem to be in a fairy tale. That blue, then the emerald waters of the fjord do not pegs the slightest breeze. A gentle voice of the Tui bird comes from the green scale. Ahead, at the turn of the bay, silver the long foam ribbon of the waterfall, and even further, in the very depths, the snow peaks of the mountains of Humboldt are tested, followed by a mysterious and having to themselves Lake Wicatipu. At the foot of the mountains hid the only settlement on the entire coast of the National Park - the tourist base of Milford Sound, from where the picturesque trail will lead the traveler to the most amazing and grandiose miracle of the nature of the South Alps - a crazy leap of a mighty river with a black cliff, wearing a Saterland waterfall name.

From him, a simple pass displays a tourist to the shores of the spacious and deep lake Te Anau, the dwelling of the clumsy red coaches - insensitive, fortunately, the pearls of the bird kingdom. Further path will lead a traveler to the running slightly north trail Miracles on which you can return to Milford Sound. But the impression of the southern island will be incomplete if you do not continue the journey over the northern border of Fjordland - to the Fjords of Westland, located at the foot highest vertices New Zealand, Cook Mountains. A stunning landscape, which opens a tourist's eyes, can be very approximately described as a Swiss view in the Mont Blanc area with a seaside landscape of Norway in the foreground. Symphony of shapes and paints of the sea, jungle, snow, ice and stone will be remembered for a tourist who fell here.

Of course, you can truly feel the charming and some piercing beauty of this mountain landscape, only by passing the southern Alps itself along the circular and ice. In addition, the breathtaking journey through the bluish-white slopes of the Franz Joseph Glacier, reaching almost 600 m in thickness, will force a traveler to survive a lot of acute sensations when the cracks in snow bridges and descents with almost sheer icefalls. The exit from the ice zone to the sea through the foggy wet forests, overgrown up to the belt to the moss and announceable by ringing bird singing will become a spectacular concluding chord in this full of bright impressions, amazing contrasts and unforgettable travel landscapes to the opposite side of the world of the globe, in the most beautiful corner Oceania - New Zealand Fjordland

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