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Short History of the Area |
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| The rocks of Fiordland are among the most ancient in New Zealand and date back some 500 million years ago when the seabeds were relentlessly ground, split, fired, and pressured by the elements. |
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| The land was raised above sea level for a time only to submerge for another 40 million years. |
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| Eventually some two million years ago, the region rose for the second time from the sea and became dislocated by great faults. The towering and topographically tortuous landscape of Fiordland was largely brought about by the last major phase of glaciation, which imposed itself on the region for a period of about 55,000 years. |
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| Glaciers gouged huge basins which, when the glaciers retreated, were filled with water to become the Great Southern Lakes we know today, which are very pure and remarkably beautiful. The largest of the lakes is Lake Te Anau. |
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| The first men to reach the area were Mäori some 800 years ago and they left behind great legends of how Lake Te Anau was once called "the lake of infidelity" after the wife of the head warrior betrayed her husband by showing a neighbouring tribal warrior where the sacred well of life was. |
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| The first Europeans were led to the area by Mäori guides in 1852 and began to settle. They were soon followed by Land explorers, surveyors, gold-seekers and runholders and the area began to grow. |
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| Naturalist Richard Henry arrived in 1883 and began a battle to save hundreds of flightless birds such as the endangered Kakapo and Kiwis from introduced rats and stoats, a battle we still fight today. |
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| The Te Anau township was surveyed in 1893, and the real thrust of the road and track construction was then set to begin. |
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Industry |
| Gold-mining and prospecting also lured people to Fiordland last century but the pickings were slim. Sawmills operated throughout the region, some of them persisting well into the early years of this century. |
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| After 1945 the crayfishers (lobster) began to arrive in increasing numbers from ports around the South Island, and in the 1950s and 1960s crayfishing boomed and became a major export industry. |
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| In the 1970's the business of live deer recovery and commercial shooting from helicopters became a major economic driver in Fiordland and still is today. |
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| Farming in the Te Anau basin along the fringes of the World Heritage Park has grown rapidly in recent years and provides significant ecomonic returns and growth to the region. |
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| But the most important commercial activity in the Fiordland area is tourism. People come from all around the globe to visit the region and experience its magnificent natural features. |
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| Each visitor explores Fiordland in his or her own way and contributes to the ongoing history of the region, parts of which have rarely, and sometimes never felt the tentative and wondering press of a human foot. Curiosity endures, history goes on. |
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| Click here to view "long history" of the area |
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