New Zealand region
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Cheese rolls. Real weather. Stewart Island is next door, not here.
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About Southland
Southland is the bottom of the country — Invercargill, the Catlins, Fiordland, and Bluff looking across at Stewart Island. It has the aluminium smelter, a large dairy conversion, and Milford Sound.
Who a listing on Southland reaches
Southland readers farm, fish, or come for Fiordland. Dairy and sheep services, the Bluff oyster trade, engineering around the smelter, and the tour operators and lodges of Te Anau and Milford Sound are the natural holders of this name.
- Main centres
- Invercargill, Gore, Te Anau, Bluff, Riverton
- Council
- Environment Southland, Invercargill
- People
- 100,143 (2023 Census)
On the chart
FiordlandNational park
Fiordland National Park: 12,600 km², the largest in the country, part of the Te Wāhipounamu World Heritage Area.
Fourteen fiords, most with no road. Doubtful Sound is reached by boat, then bus over the pass, then boat again.
Te AnauLake
Lake Te Anau, the largest in the South Island and 417 m deep. The gateway to Fiordland.
The glowworm caves open onto its western shore; the Kepler Track begins at its outlet.
ManapōuriLake
Lake Manapōuri, 444 m deep. The 1970s campaign against raising it began modern conservation here.
The Manapōuri power station is underground on its west arm; its tailrace runs out to Doubtful Sound.
HaurokoLake
Lake Hauroko, 462 m deep — the deepest lake in the country.
The name means “sounding wind”. A Māori burial cave was found on an island in it in 1967.
PoteriteriLake
Lake Poteriteri: remote Fiordland water, reached on foot or by float plane.
Southland’s second-largest lake. Rain here can pass eight metres a year.
MonowaiLake
Lake Monowai: raised for hydro in 1925; the drowned trees still stand at its edge.
The raised level drowned the shoreline trees; their stumps still stand in the water.
MilfordLandmark
Milford Sound / Piopiotahi: a fiord, not a sound. Mitre Peak rises 1,683 m straight from the water.
Reached by the Homer Tunnel, 1.2 km through the mountain, finished in 1953.
Doubtful SoundLandmark
Doubtful Sound / Patea: Cook doubted he could sail out again. The deepest of the fiords, 421 m.
Ten times the area of Milford and far quieter. Fur seals and bottlenose dolphins live in it.
Puysegur PointLandmark
Puysegur Point: the south-west corner of the mainland, and its lighthouse.
The lighthouse was burned down by a hermit in 1942 and rebuilt; keepers stayed until 1980.
BluffLandmark
Bluff: the oldest European town, oysters, and the signpost at the end of State Highway 1.
The Bluff Oyster Festival is every May. Ferries leave here for Stewart Island.
Bluff oystersOn the water
Foveaux Strait: Bluff oysters are dredged from these beds between March and August.
The oyster is Ostrea chilensis, a flat oyster, and Bluff's town festival is built around it.
InvercargillCity
Invercargill / Waihōpai: the southernmost city, a few kilometres from Bluff.
Burt Munro's Indian motorcycle lives here; oysters come in from Bluff.