Fiordland national park scientific activities. Fiordland National Park

Fiordland National Park is located in New Zealand. This is one of the largest national parks on our planet, its area exceeds 12,500 square kilometers. The park was created back in 1952 to preserve the incredible beauty of the southwestern part of the South Island of New Zealand. And in 1990 it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

National Park Fiordland is an amazing place with picturesque landscapes and unique flora and fauna. The flow of tourists here is so large that the government has to limit their number. Walking excursions are organized here for numerous guests of the country and local residents. It is noteworthy that in the territory of this huge park you will not meet animals that could pose a danger to your life.

The western part of the park is decorated with fjords - long bays with steep rocky shores. Located in the east beautiful lakes, among which the famous Lake Manapouri is the deepest lake in New Zealand.

All these beauties are diluted by mountain ranges, the height of which here reaches 2746 meters. The western slopes of these mountains are among the wettest places on our planet. It rains here 200 days a year, but the precipitation falls very evenly.

Climate in the area national park Fiordland is sharply oceanic, the temperature difference is small, air temperatures range from 5 to 23 degrees. The coldest month of the year is July, and the hottest month is January.

Such weather conditions contribute to the prosperous existence of tropical rainforests on the slopes of the mountains; these forests are considered the most ancient on our planet, and the water level in the fjords remains unchanged, they reach about 40 meters in depth, the water in them is fresh.

Flora and fauna of the national park

The Fiordland National Park is home to rare species of plants and animals. Here you can find a rare species of wood - silvery nothofagus, whose age can reach 800 years. Numerous swamps in the park have unique vegetation.

The population of forest birds in the national park is the highest in New Zealand. Rare species such as the kakapo and takahe parrots are found here. In addition, the park is home to such bird species as the southern kiwi, yellow-fronted jumping parrot, crooked plover, shooter, blue duck, rock wren, and weca rail. A huge number of seabirds have chosen the rocky shores of the fjords. In addition, New Zealand fur seals and thick-billed penguins live in the fjords.

The reservoirs of Fiordland National Park are famous for their diversity of plants and animals; subtropical sponges, mollusks and corals live here. It is worth noting that the largest colony of black corals on the planet found refuge here.

Among other things, the national park is home to approximately three thousand different species of insects, a tenth of which are found only here. In Fiordland you can also find representatives of flora and fauna brought from other continents, for example, rats or elk deer.

Glaciers of Fiordland

The bays in the west of the national park were cut by glaciers a long time ago. Once upon a time, a huge glacier covered the entire territory of what is now Fiordland, but now in this unique corner of the planet you can see what is left of it. However, the view is simply stunning.

Lakes of the national park

Between mountain peaks There are a huge number of lakes in the park. Lake Wakatipu stands out against their background, the length of which is 80 kilometers! People call it “the heart of the South Island”; there are many legends about this lake.

Fiordland waterfalls

After heavy rains, in the territory of the largest national park in New Zealand, you can see an incredibly beautiful sight - streams of water begin to flow down steep slopes, forming many waterfalls. Small streams never reach the surface of the earth, falling down, and on the way they are blown by the wind.

However, there are two permanent waterfalls in the park - Bowen Falls, which reaches a height of 162 meters and Stirling Falls, which reaches a height of 155 meters. They both add to the already spectacular scenery of Fiordland National Park.

The Country of Fjords or Fiordland has long been the name given to the territory located in the southwest of New Zealand. In 1952, Fiordland National Park, the largest in New Zealand, was created on this territory. Its area is more than 12.5 thousand square kilometers. Here are such symbols of all of New Zealand as Lakes Manapouri and Te Anau, Sutherland Falls, Sound Fjord...

Enlarged map of Fiordland National Park. (Google maps)

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Fiordland National Park Google map maps

Fjord country is mostly mountains. They are a continuation of the Southern Alps and their height reaches 3000 meters. In the distant past, this territory was covered by a huge glacier, which melted and cut the slopes of this mountain range into deep gorges, forming many picturesque fjords and long narrow lakes.
Mother Nature generously endowed New Zealand with beauty. And the best and most picturesque landscapes of New Zealand are concentrated right here - in the Land of Fjords.

To everyone who comes to these lands for the first time, it seems that even today no human has set foot on this land. One of the features of the Fiordland coast is that the rocks that form the bays plunge sharply into the water and it seems that it is simply impossible to find places to land on the shore.
Another feature of these places is the surprisingly close proximity of forests to glaciers. You probably won’t find another place on earth where southern beech, laurel, myrtle... would coexist so closely with the snow-white crystal layer of ice.

The many mountain lakes of the Fjord Country are also unique. The local lakes are long and narrow. It seems as if the rocks, rising steeply above their water surface to a height of up to two kilometers, are still squeezing them on both sides. For example, Lake Waikatipu is the deepest and longest in Fiordland. From the northwest to the southeast of the island it stretches for almost 100 km, and its depth reaches 400 meters. As many as 25 rivers flow into Lake Waikatipu. These rivers have no name. On maps they are designated using serial numbers. Every five minutes the water in the lake rises and falls again by 7.5 cm. The lake seems to be breathing. Local ancient legend says that this giant's heart is hidden at the bottom of the lake. New Zealanders call the lake the “heart” of this island. Scientists today still do not have an explanation for this unique natural phenomenon.
The animals that inhabit Fiordland National Park are another unique feature of the park. Fiordland's forests are home to almost 700 species of endemic animals and plants. You will not find such exotic animals and plants anywhere except Fiordland National Park.
The forests of Fiordland are home to the large, unusually behaved kea predator parrot, the amazingly beautiful emerald parrot, the kakapo owl parrot, the singing birds tui and the yellow crow.

The number of kakapo owl parrots reaches only 125 individuals. Kakapo are the only species of parrot that are nocturnal and hide in their burrows during the day.
The population of the nearly extinct Takahe bird has recently begun to increase again. The takahe is a bird that cannot fly and is about the size of a goose. She has beautiful plumage and a bright red short thick beak.

On the roads you can see an interesting sign: a penguin enclosed in a red circle. In this way, road workers indicate the crossing points of the cute little penguins living in Fiordland.

Outwardly, they are similar to their polar relatives, but their lifestyle is very different from them. They place their nests several kilometers from the shore and every day they walk to the sea, where they find food for themselves and their young.

Video from Kiwi. Kiwis are small wingless birds that can only be found in New Zealand.

In most of Fiordland there are simply no roads. Therefore, visiting tourists travel on foot to most of the remote places of the national park, using the services of guides.

It should be noted that these hiking are safe for the life and health of tourists, since there are no and large predators, and poisonous animals.
For those unprepared for mountain trekking along the fjords, trips by boat are probably more suitable.

Such trips are no less interesting and allow you to fully enjoy all the unique landscapes and fantastic beauties of the Fjord Country.
The Fjord Country is a place where many natural wonders come together. A real wonderland!

In 1990, Fiordland National Park was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. And together with Westland, Mount Cook and Muant Aspiring National Parks they form the Te Wahipounamu World Heritage Area.

Finally, a little video:

Helicopter flight over beautiful waterfalls, lakes and snow-capped mountain peaks around Milford Sound in New Zealand (northern part of Fiordland National Park).

Fiordland National Park is an amazingly beautiful wildlife park in New Zealand. It forms large territory untouched forest combined with ponds and mountain ranges. Another very popular place among tourists. (12 photos)

Stunningly beautiful view of Fiordland National Park

Fiordland Park is one of a kind. Just looking at his photographs, it immediately becomes clear how handsome he is. Mountain ranges rugged by the fjords of the Tasman Sea, all kinds of waterfalls with crystal clear water create an indescribable atmosphere of beauty.

First of all, the park has favorable conditions. There is an oceanic climate here, with warm weather, but it is quite humid, without droughts or sudden temperature changes.

In 1952, the New Zealand government decided to protect such beauty from possible human encroachments. And a national park was created. Today Fiordland Park is on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The park's territory is quite large, its area is 12,500 km². Another attraction of the park is its mountains. Their nature is such that they are protected from the destructive effects of the surrounding nature. Thus, we can observe the mountains that appeared here 2 million years ago. The height of the mountains in the park reaches 2746 meters above sea level. This is certainly not, but it is also quite high.

The nature of the park is unique in its combination. Only here you can see how, very close to each other, there are tropical forest vines and mountain glaciers, on which penguins proudly flaunt. Tropical vines are also combined with huge beech trees. By the way, Beech is over 800 years old.

Fiordland National Park is also rich in various lakes, which are characterized by crystal clear water. The steep waterfalls that descend from the plateau are also fascinating. Sometimes you can find rainfalls, but they are so small that often the wind blows them away before they can touch the ground.

Deserves special attention animal world parka. Various species of animals are represented here in all their diversity. Bird species are especially valuable and unique. The park is home to a large variety of birds. And, of course, the colorfulness that is inherent in the park. Here a parrot and a penguin can fight for a place in the sun.

New Zealand earns good money from visiting tourists. There is an entrance fee to the park. Also, everything is done here for the convenience of vacationers. For example, for a fee you can admire the mountain plateau from a helicopter. There are also various types of escalators and boat rides. Needless to say, tourists are loved here and are always welcome to visit.

National Park in the southwest of the South Island of New Zealand. Created in 1904, area 1.2 million hectares. Protects natural complexes of moist evergreen forests with tree ferns, laurels, legworts, rosaceae, myrtle and lianas, complexes of subtropical forests with southern beech and shrub thickets, as well as alpine and subalpine meadows on the slopes of the Southern Alps. The park is known for its unique bird fauna, including the rare kea parrot, the kaka forest parrot or green nestor, the burrow-dwelling owl parrot, the best singer of New Zealand forests - the tui bird (bush robin) and the takahe rail, until recently considered extinct and discovered only in one of the valleys of Fiordland, as well as the symbol of the country - the flightless kiwi bird and the yellow-eyed penguin. Dolphins and fur seals are found in the waters off the coast. The park is given a special flavor by the exceptionally picturesque landscape of the coast, cut by deep fjords, to which mighty glaciers descend from the mountains, in some places reaching a height of 300 m.

Fiordland
The extreme southwest of the South Island of New Zealand has long been called Fiordland - the Land of Fjords. The nature here is strikingly different from the hilly plateaus of the North Island, above which low cones of young volcanoes rise only here and there. South Island - predominantly Mountain country, the main ridge of which is the mighty chain of the Southern Alps, raising its snowy peaks to an almost 4-kilometer height.

A huge glacier that once covered this area carved deep trough-shaped gorges into the slopes of the ridge, in which one and a half dozen narrow long lakes and at least thirty deep fjord bays were formed, which gave the name to this picturesque corner of the country. New Zealand is extremely rich in natural beauty, but the landscapes of Fiordland are the most beautiful thing that can be seen in this fabulous land, and perhaps on our entire planet. The traveler who gets here is at first speechless when the ship enters a calm bay surrounded by kilometer-long rock walls and heads deeper into the island, to where the snow whitens on the slopes of the Southern Alps.

And the further the ship sails, the longer the tourist gets acquainted with the amazing and diverse nature of Fiordland, the stronger his admiration for the magical beauty of the surrounding places. And it is difficult to decide what is the most picturesque, the most interesting, the most majestic and the most exciting in this wild and deserted country: bays or mountains, forests or waterfalls, lakes or glaciers, rare, endangered birds or the longest mosses in the world... Twenty descending from the mountains thousand years ago, giant glacial tongues cut into the rocky shores of the South Island its main decoration - winding fjords that sometimes go 50 km deep, into which three-hundred-meter waterfalls plunge from steep cliffs. And located in the vicinity of the Milford Sound fjord, Sutherland Falls, whose height reaches almost six hundred meters, is one of the five highest on our planet.

From no less beautiful fjords Norway or Southern Chile, the New Zealand bays are distinguished by the complete absence of traces of human activity. Their banks go so steeply into the water that it is not easy to find a place on them not only for a settlement, but even just for a tourist tent. The second characteristic feature of Fiordland is the unusually close proximity of the forests of its coast to mountain glaciers. Nowhere else on Earth do rivers of ice descend directly to the edge of moist evergreen forests. The contrast of the bluish, fissured half-kilometer thickness of the glacier with the thickets of myrtle, southern beech and laurel bordering its foot literally amazes the traveler who sees the proud slopes of the majestic ridge of the Southern Alps from the deck of a cruise ship through binoculars.

Meanwhile, the apparent implausibility of this picture is easily explained. Due to the steepness of the western "front" of the Southern Alps, New Zealand's glaciers move much faster than their counterparts elsewhere in the Pyrenees or Himalayas. Some of them, such as the Tasman Glacier, move down half a meter every day. Before melting, the tongue of the glacier sometimes manages to descend to a height of 300 m above sea level. And the upper limit of forests at this latitude reaches 1000 m. As a result, ice and rainforests meet each other, ignoring “intermediaries” like alpine meadows or mountain tundra.

Even more beautiful are the numerous mountain lakes of the Southern Alps. Narrow, long and compressed by rocky slopes rising 1.5-2 km above their blue waters, they are somewhat reminiscent of the reservoirs of the Taimyr Putorana plateau in Siberia. But, of course, the forests surrounding Lakes Te Anau, Waikatipu, Wanaka, Ohau or Rakaia are immeasurably richer, denser, higher and more luxurious than the Putorana larch woodlands. The valleys in the depths of the mountainous regions are completely uninhabited. Many places in Fiordland have never been touched by humans. And each new expedition discovers here previously unknown peaks, waterfalls, lakes and passes.

The longest lake in New Zealand, Waikatipu, stretches from northwest to southeast for almost 100 km, cutting the ridge in a blue transverse zigzag. Its depth reaches 400 m. So many rivers flow into the Waikatipu, which, due to the lack of population, did not have local names, that topographers chose not to exercise their imagination, but to simply designate them on the map with serial numbers: from the First to the Twenty-Fifth. There is a mysterious connection with this lake. a natural phenomenon, for which science has not yet found an explanation. The water in it rises by seven and a half centimeters every five minutes, then drops to its previous level. The lake seems to be breathing. New Zealanders like to say that beneath the waters of Waikatipu beats the heart of the South Island.

And here is how the ancient Maori legend explains the mystery of Lake Waikatipu: “Once upon a time,” it says, “the daughter of the chief Manata and the brave young hunter and warrior Matakauri lived in one of the valleys of the island. The young man and the girl fell in love with each other, but trouble happened - the evil giant Matau attacked their village and took Manata to his possessions, far deep into the snow-capped mountains. In despair, the old leader, the girl's father, turned to all the warriors of the tribe, begging them to save his daughter. He promised whoever saved the girl to give her as a wife. None of the men dared to fight the giant, and only Matakauri dared to do this desperate thing. The young daredevil climbed high into the mountains and found a sleeping giant there, and next to him, Manata tied to a tree. Having freed his beloved, he went down with her to the village, but did not stay there with the girl, but returned to the mountains again. After all, it was clear that, having woken up, the evil giant would again descend into the valley and deal with the kidnapper, and take the girl back.

And Matakauri decided to destroy the giant. While he was sleeping, with his head on one mountain and his feet on the other two, the young man began to drag armfuls of brushwood, twigs and logs from the forest and cover the sleeping giant with them. Matakauri worked many days and nights. Then, by rubbing two pieces of wood together, he got a fire and lit the fire. The giant was engulfed in flames, and the smoke obscured the sun. The heat from the huge fire was so strong that the flames burned through the ground. A gigantic depression was formed, resembling the outline of a giant's body. Rains and mountain rivers filled it with water and turned it into a lake, which people called Waikatipu. And only the giant’s heart did not burn. It lies deep at the bottom of the lake and is still beating. And with each blow, the lake waters rise and fall..."

Over the past decades, so many rare birds have been discovered in the remote corners of the Country of Fjords that the country’s authorities decided to create in this part of the island one of the largest national parks in the world, covering an area of one million two hundred thousand hectares! (This is larger than the entire territory of Lebanon or Cyprus.) The forests of Fiordland Park are home to such unique creatures as the rare owl parrot-kakapo, which lives in earthen burrows and feeds on snails and worms, or the huge and unusual in its habits predatory parrot kea, which can , like an African vulture, butcher the carcasses of dead sheep, leaving only skeletons of them.

The kea was practically exterminated in other places in New Zealand, since cattle farmers believed that it could sit directly on the backs of sheep and tear pieces of meat directly from living animals, and therefore mercilessly destroyed the beautiful bird, which, by the way, first became acquainted with meat only after the appearance of Europeans. After all, before this, there were no mammals in New Zealand at all, except for bats, and only the English settlers accustomed kea to an unusual diet. The fact is that before the invention of refrigerated ships, New Zealanders sent only sheep wool to England and threw away the carcasses. And then, around the slaughterhouses there was enough food for a well-fed existence for more than a dozen winged “orderlies”. However, most zoologists categorically reject the accusation of attacks on live sheep.

Also found in the mountain thickets of Fiordland are the most beautiful emerald parrot, the vocal thuja bird and the generally accepted best singer of the alpine forests, prosaically called the yellow crow. And in 1948, on the shores of Lake Te Anau, amateur naturalist Orbell discovered the takahe bird, which was considered long extinct, making the herd the largest ornithological discovery of the 20th century. The takahe is a flightless bird about the size of a large goose. It is distinguished by its bright, beautiful plumage, strong legs and a short, thick beak of bright red color. Once upon a time, before the arrival of Europeans, there were so many takahe on the South Island that the entire west coast of the Maori was called "the place where the takahe live."

Settlers from England liked the hunt for tasty game that could not fly away, and already at the end of the 19th century, hunters stopped seeing takahe. It was believed that they had been completely exterminated, but after more than half a century it turned out that several pairs of unique birds found shelter on the shores of a hard-to-reach mountain lake. Now their habitat is under strict protection, and the rare species seems to have been saved from destruction.

Some optimistic zoologists believe that in the inaccessible corners of Fiordland, the gigantic moa birds, three-meter tall giants of the New Zealand fauna, could have survived to this day. Disappeared several centuries ago, they were the largest birds on Earth, along with the now extinct inhabitant of Madagascar - the giant apiornis ostrich. Alas, the hopes of optimists are most likely groundless. No traces of the moa have yet been found.

And on the highways in the southern part of the island you can often see an unusual road sign with an image of a penguin enclosed in a red circle. This is how the road service warns about the crossing areas of yellow-eyed penguins - small, cute birds, completely different in lifestyle from their polar counterparts. They make their nests in the forest, several kilometers from the coast, and every day they leisurely walk to the sea, where they obtain food for themselves and their offspring.

From the southernmost in New Zealand large city Dunedin can be reached in the Land of Fjords both by land and sea. The most popular of Fiordland's bays, Milford Sound, is reached from Lake Waikatipu by a narrow road through an amazingly beautiful gorge. New Zealanders nicknamed this path the Path of Miracles. The lake itself, covered in legends, is connected to the inhabited areas of the eastern coast by an ancient road, once laid by gold miners. At one time, Waikatipu experienced a period of “gold rush”, when tent cities and gold mines sprang up on its shores like mushrooms. But the reserves of the precious metal soon ran out, and now only the old road, which has become a tourist route, reminds of the old days.

No less interesting, and even more accessible for tourists unprepared for mountain trekking, is traveling through the fjords by boat. Such a voyage will allow you, regardless of the weather (which is replete with rain and fog), to enjoy the fantastic landscapes of the Fjord Country and, in particular, to visit Dusky Sound, hidden behind the mountainous Resolution Island, where two centuries ago the camp of the Cook expedition, which compiled the first map, was located coast of Fiordland. He also named the island, which protects the hospitable and picturesque bay from autumn storms, after his ship “Resolution”.

And a hundred miles to the north, the main attraction of Fiordland, the famous Milford Sound, cuts 40 km deep into the coast. And when the ship passes Mount Mithres, which guards the entrance to it, raising its peak 1700 m above the sea, and finds itself surrounded by steep forested slopes of coastal ridges, the traveler begins to feel as if he is sailing into a fairy tale. The blue and emerald waters of the fjord are not stirred by the slightest breeze. From the green thickets comes the gentle voice of the thuja bird. Ahead, at the turn of the bay, a long foamy ribbon of a waterfall shines silver, and even further, in the very depths, rise the snowy peaks of the Humboldt Mountains, behind which lies the mysterious and alluring Lake Waikatipu. At the foot of the mountains lies the only settlement on the entire coast of the national park - the Milford Sound tourist base, from where a picturesque trail will lead the traveler to the most amazing and grandiose natural wonder of the Southern Alps - the crazy jump of a mighty river from a black cliff called Sutherland Falls.

From here, a simple pass leads the tourist to the shores of a spacious and deep lake Te Anau, home of the clumsy red-billed takahe - the fortunately unextinct pearl of the bird kingdom. The further path will lead the traveler to the Miracle Trail, which lies just north, along which you can return to Milford Sound. But the impression of the South Island will not be complete without continuing the journey beyond the northern border of Fiordland - to the Westland fjords, located at the foot of highest peak New Zealand, Mount Cook. The stunning landscape that opens up to the gaze of the tourist here can be very roughly described as a Swiss view in the Mont Blanc region with the seaside landscape of Norway in the foreground. The symphony of shapes and colors of the sea, jungle, snow, ice and stone will be remembered for a long time by the tourist who comes here.

Of course, you can truly feel the enchanting and somehow piercing beauty of this mountain landscape only by walking yourself along the steep slopes and ice of the Southern Alps. In addition, a breathtaking journey along the bluish-white slopes of the Franz Josef Glacier, which reaches almost 600 m in thickness, will make the traveler experience many thrills when crossing cracks on snow bridges and descending from almost vertical icefalls. The exit from the ice zone to the sea through foggy wet forests, overgrown with waist-length mosses and resounding with ringing birdsong, will be a spectacular final chord in this journey, full of vivid impressions, amazing contrasts and unforgettable landscapes, to the opposite side of the globe from Moscow, to the most beautiful corner Oceania - New Zealand Fiordland

Takahe

They were hunted by local Maori tribes for their plumage. By the time Europeans arrived on the islands, it was believed that the birds had been completely destroyed.
Only in 1948, an amateur naturalist from a small New Zealand town, Jeffrey Orbell, after almost a year of systematic searches in the area of Lake Te Anau, discovered a small colony of birds.
The birds were photographed, banded and released. The New Zealand government decided to declare this area a nature reserve.

Fifty takahes lived peacefully. But since there was a threat in the form of voracious weasels and possums, a nursery was created as a safety net.
The nursery was built on Mount Bruce, one hundred and thirty kilometers from Wellington. It was decided to get takahe eggs and place them under the bantam chickens.
The most diligent hens were specially selected. They trained them like paratroopers. We chose one, but misfortune happened: a box with a chicken and training eggs fell out of the car. However, I was lucky - not a single egg broke. When they opened the box, they saw a ruffled hen covering the eggs with her body.
The operation began successfully, two chicks hatched in due time, from which the revival of Tahake began.
Rare takahe birds can be seen in their natural habitat, Lake Te Anau.

Kakapo

This is a representative of the genus of owl parrots or, as they are also called, kakapo. The number of these birds barely reaches 125 individuals, which makes them the rarest birds on the planet.

The only parrot that leads a twilight and nocturnal lifestyle. During the day, it hides in burrows or rock crevices. At night, it comes out along well-trodden paths to feed on berries or plant juice (chews leaves and shoots without tearing them off). ()