Fiordland National Park

Fiordland National Park occupies southwest corner South Island of New Zealand.

Almost 10,000 square kilometres (3,900 sq mi) of Fiordland were set aside as a national reserve in 1904, following suggestions by

then-future Prime Minister Thomas Mackenzie and Southland Commissioner of Crown Lands, John Hay that the region should be declared a

national park.

The area had already become a destination for trampers, following the opening up of the Milford Track from Lake Te Anau to Milford

Sound in 1889 by New Zealand explorers Quintin McKinnon and Donald Sutherland (explorer), which received significant publicity from a

1908 article in the London Spectator describing it as the "Finest Walk in the World".

An entry to Fiordland National Park

The Fiordland "public reserve" was created as a park administered by the Department of Lands and Survey - in practical terms similar

to a National Park. The only two officially named "national parks" in New Zealand at the time, Tongariro National Park and Egmont National

Park, were administered by park boards. Consolidation of the management of these parks led to the National Parks Act of 1952, which brought

Fiordland National Park into the fold, formally making it the third National Park in New Zealand.