The remarkable story of conservation and history in Fiordland’s Tamatea/Dusky Sound
Tamatea/Dusky Sound, in the southwestern corner of Fiordland National Park, contains a magnificent archipelago of over 700 islands.
It has a fascinating history, both Māori and European, but best known for being the place where Captain James Cook and the Resolution crew spent six weeks in 1773.
Arguably, it is the conservation story that is its most compelling and enduring, for this is where nature conservation began in New Zealand over 120 years ago, and where much of our ground-breaking work in predator control and species conservation has taken place over the last 50 years. Today, the greater Tamatea/ Dusky Sound is the focus of one of the most significant and ambitious conservation and restoration projects in the world, as populations of such birds as kākāpō, kiwi, tīeke/saddleback and rock wren are protected and re-established.
Tamatea/Dusky journeys through today’s extensive restoration efforts, from the many islands to the mainland and mountains, while charting the extraordinary episodes of human endeavour that have taken place over the last 250 years in this remote, yet spectacular, corner of the New Zealand wilderness.