Diving Guide to Fiordland & Stewart Island

About Fiordland & Stewart Island

Fiordland and Stewart Island represent the pinnacle of New Zealand's unique diving, offering an underwater experience found nowhere else on Earth. The fiords of Milford Sound, Doubtful Sound, and Dusky Sound feature a remarkable phenomenon where a layer of dark, tannin-stained freshwater sits atop the saltwater, creating low-light conditions that allow deep-water species to thrive at extraordinarily shallow depths. Black coral trees, normally found below 100 metres, grow at just 10 to 30 metres in the fiords, making this the world's shallowest black coral forest. Red rock lobsters, blue cod, spiny sea dragons, and colourful nudibranchs populate the fiord walls in a surreal underwater landscape. Stewart Island, New Zealand's third-largest island, delivers pristine kelp forests at Ulva Island Marine Reserve with huge blue cod, wrasse, pipefish, weedy seadragons, and yellow-eyed penguins swimming underwater. The subantarctic Snares Islands, accessible only by expedition, offer massive kelp, fur seals, sea lions, and penguins in waters of extraordinary clarity. This is diving at its most wild and unique, combining geological phenomena, rare species, and pristine wilderness in a landscape of dramatic fiords and remote islands.

Highlights

• ✓Milford Sound black coral: the world's shallowest black coral trees at 10 to 30 metres in a unique freshwater-over-saltwater environment
• ✓Doubtful and Dusky Sounds: pristine fiord diving with red rock lobsters, blue cod, and spiny sea dragons
• ✓Ulva Island Marine Reserve: pristine kelp forest with huge blue cod, weedy seadragons, and yellow-eyed penguins
• ✓Paterson Inlet: calm sheltered diving ideal for training and macro photography
• ✓The Snares subantarctic islands: expedition-only diving with massive kelp, sea lions, and penguins

Getting There

Drive from Queenstown approximately 4 hours to Milford Sound or ferry from Bluff to Stewart Island