October 6, 2026 — 12:00am
In 2025, 1.6 million cruise ship passengers visited Norway’s fjords, a record for that country. In the southern hemisphere’s version, New Zealand’s Fiordland, only its northern-most fjord, Milford Sound, garners real interest.
Fiordland is made up of 14 fjords in the south-west of the South Island, spread across 12,000 square kilometres of a World Heritage-listed national park and is serviced by a handful of expedition boats.
At about 40 kilometres long, Dusky Sound is the largest fjord in Fiordland. Mine is an 18-passenger, 24-metre-long cruising catamaran built for these fjords, and it’s not until day six of a six-night expedition that we actually see any other vessel at all – a lobster boat, with a crew of three.
Captain James Cook was the first non-indigenous visitor here. On Cook’s second expedition in 1773, his naturalist, Johann Forster, described Fiordland’s isolation: “Here, was the deepest silence. Nature was hushed, not a breath of wind penetrated to this sheet of water enclosed by high mountains and great forests.”
In the 250 years since, nothing appears to have changed: there are no roads in, no towns, no indication humans were ever here at all. “Fiordland has to be the loneliest place on Earth,” our skipper, Francis Brundell, says. “It’s a beast. God, I love it.”
Sign up for the Traveller Deals newsletter
Get exclusive travel deals delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up now.
Why Fiordland has
Read More