Te Wahipounamu

I thought that this site did not need any additional reviews. I mean, it’s got heaps of testimonies already, and we all know it’s famous, iconic, and a well-managed site that boasts some of the most beautiful sceneries in the world. But it won’t hurt if this site gets another review, right? :D

The previous reviews had highlighted the OUV of this WHS already, so I would just focus on sharing my experiences visiting Milford Sound and hiking the Kepler and Routeburn tracks. Visits were on two separate occasions last March 2022.

1. Milford Sound/Piopiotahi

The night we arrived in Te Anau from Queenstown, my friend and I booked the tour for the following day, knowing that it would rain the whole day and the waterfalls would be spectacular. I wouldn’t say I like going outdoors in the rain, but this was one of the rare exceptions.

There were only about 20 tourists on the bus, and it was a typical tour bus where the driver also gave commentaries. We stopped at the designated tour spots such as the Mirror Lakes and Eglinton Flats despite the drizzle. We arrived at Milford Sound almost 2 hours later and were surprised that we were one of the only two buses there. COVID has drastically affected tourism in Fiordland—our driver lamented how they used to have a surplus of visitors pre-COVID. At the moment it was rare for their tours to even reach half the capacity, although I am …

In January 2020, we spent a week on the Southern island of New Zealand in and around Te Wahipounamu. When people say the Southern island is the more beautiful of the two, Te Wahipounamu is the main reason. It offers fjords, forests, glaciers and mountains in abundance that are very little touched by humans.

We started around Te Anau with a half day hike along the western shore of Lake Te Anau. It takes you directly into a massive fern forest. The next day we did the mandatory Milford cruise. It's takes you out to the ocean along the high cliffs of the fjord. You pass plenty of waterfalls and if you are lucky, you get to see some dolphins. The weirdest part is that the surrounding mountains seem so small, when in reality they climb above 1600m.

Personally, I enjoyed our stops along the way to Milford better than the actual cruise. You get several view points, most notably the Mirror Lake and the Eglinton Valley view point. If you are into rough hiking, you can hike to Lake Marian. We tried. But we got lost along the way. And due to time pressure from having to catch the ferry, we had to return before reaching the lake.

Two days later, we drove in a single day from Wanaka to Greymouth with stops at Fox and Franz Josef Glacier. This is the second mandatory component of any visit as the west coast is just stunning. First, …

WHS#4

As a world traveller, I often get asked which country I loved the most. To answer that question, I usually look back on how surreal every day was in each country, how wonderful it was to just wake up and see paradise, to feel like you're in the most perfect place in the world. For me, that's New Zealand. I visited a long time ago, on a family road trip back in April 2013, but it's still one of the most memorable landscapes for me. This WHS experience was actually a good motivation and eventually, outcome of my first work in travel itineraries. My family had originally planned to go down the East Coast of the South Island through Christchurch before ending in Queenstown. I, however, had different plans. I wanted to go down the West Coast because of my interest in gemstones, and Hokitika on the West Coast is a haven for local gemstones, especially known as a jade (locally known as pounamu, the namesake of the South Island) locality. I didn't really get to hunt for jade on the beach, but I got an even more memorable adventure on this scenic route. The route down the West Coast from Picton to Queenstown brought me to Westland Tai Poutini National Park and Haast, as well as Fjordland National Park, which we visited on a day trip from Queenstown. Those few days just barely scratched the surface of this vast land. It's one of the most visually pleasing …

The incessant rain dripped from my sunhat. My jeans were clinging clammily to my legs. My surroundings lay lost in the cloud banks that enveloped the little boat, creating an aura of mystery and suspense. Alone on the upper deck I braced myself on the rail as we cut across the mouth of Doubtful Sound, roiling and bucking with the waves.

Te Wāhipounamu World Heritage Site is comprised of four contiguous national parks running up the southern west coast of New Zealand’s South Island. From south to north these are Fiordland National Park, Mt Aspiring National Park, Westland National Park and Aoraki / Mt Cook National Park. Our trip to New Zealand had been scheduled to take in the first three of these. As it was, due to being ripped off by a campervan hire company and being left stranded in Queenstown with no transport, no accommodation and no money to pay for either, our once-in-a-lifetime trip to New Zealand ended up starting and ending with a single day trip to Doubtful Sound in Fiordland before we had to fly home early (New Zealand remains the only place I’ve visited where I was glad to pay more to leave the country sooner than planned).

Doubtful Sound, the less visited southern sister to the more famous Milford Sound, requires a full day – though it depends on where you start from. Tours – you can search for them yourselves - leave from the town of Manapouri at 10am sharp, …

I visited Te Wahipounamu in July of 2007.

Te Wahipounamu is the Maori word for what is the fjordlands area in the southwest corner of the South Island of New Zealand. This includes the famous Milford and Doubtful Sounds.

I did a tour of Milford Sound and had the pleasure of going immediately after it had rained for 24-hours. Water was flowing down the sides of the fjord in hundreds of small waterfalls, and the large waterfalls were going at full flow.

Visiting can usually be done on a day trip from Queenstown, but you can also stay in the region to do and experience more.

Read more about Te Wahipounamu on my website.

The hardest thing about this WHS is knowing where to start... and where to stop. It's not just enormous in terms of area, it has such an incredible amount of diversity. In some ways, it could easily be split into a few different World Heritage Sites, because each area has such unique aspects.

As a visitor, I think the best thing is to hire a car and take your time driving along the coast over a number of days, stopping for different walks and viewpoints.

One of the highlights (for me) was the glaciers - particularly Fox and Franz Josef. The sad things is that they are receding so quickly at the moment. Part of that is just the natural ebb and flow but the human-caused climate change is also having a big effect. I wonder how long they will last. Will there be a generation soon that won't be able to see this?!

As a local who has completed two full tours of the country, I have to say there is no other part which quite creates the sense of travelling into the prehistoric past the way Te Wahipounamu does.

It's so simple to find a quiet spot where you can contemplate how little the landscape has changed here over the aeons, to get some perspective on how damaging the presence of humans is - and how important it is to ensure areas like this remain free of that damage. Then there is just the sheer, raw natural beauty of the place - it's a cliche to say it leaves me speechless, but that truly is the effect.

I was enraptured when I read the reviews already on this page.

In April I made the 1000 km journey to the bottom of the South Island. This is the real New Zealand, far removed from the city life that I endure in Auckland.

Most people travel to these remote areas by car, but if you are travelling alone, or feel that is too un-green, be assured that I toured the whole area from and back to Christchurch by local bus and train services. Because of the tortuous nature of the roads there I would recommend this as it allows you watch the scenery instead of the road.

From Christchurch there are direct bus services to Te Anau, Queenstown, Mount Cook and Greymouth, as well as the scenic rail link to Greymouth that I used.

From Te Anau there are several services to Milford which connect there with boat trips up the Sound.

From Queenstown there are bus services to Te Anau (for Fiordland), to Glenorchy and Wanaka (for Mount Aspiring), to Fox and Franz Joseph Glaciers (for Westland) and onwards to Greymouth.

For the more energetic there are walks on the Milford and Routeburn tracks that lead through the Fiordland and Mount Aspiring National Parks respectively.

Ah, New Zealand! I travelled for 3 1/2 weeks on both North and South Islands. Fiordland National Park is stunning but watch out for those keas (alpine parrots) that will tear their beaks into anything in their path, including your car! I took a boat tour on Milford Sound and felt like Jacques Cousteau. The waterfalls were beautiful and what a thrill it was to see seals on the rocks! On the boat, I went fishing for the first time with a makeshift rod that the boat crew gave me. Didn't catch any fish - just fed them with my bait!

I am a bit surprised to see how many beautiful, world-class things Newzealanders have managed to "throw in one basket" with this monument. In fact Te Wahipounamu is quite big and extremely diverse natural area, and some other nations may be would make some five World Heritage sites out of it.

To me was a surprise to see so few people and so little development in Fiordland. Humans have managed to build here some prety good roads and some smaller cities and villages, but everything else is rugged mountains, dense coastal rainforest, incredible waterfalls, magnificent ocean - fairytale land (see "Lord of the Rings").

In a land of superlatives, Fiordland National Park earns the highest ranking possible in all around natural beauty. My jaw hurt from repetitive dropping as we made our way to scenic Milford Sound, passing through majestic glacier-topped mountains ringed with temperate rain forest. At Milford Sound, I suggest the boat tours, as the raging waterfalls, dolphin encounters and lazing seals are best seen from this vantage point. I have traveled extensively and I do not say this lightly when I call this area the most beautiful spot on earth.