Alpine Gold

Remote luxury meets awe-inspiring wilderness in New Zealand's deep south.

- By Tricia Welsh

A colony of fur seals scarpers out of the shallows and on to nearby rocks as our boat rounds Luncheon Cove in Tamatea Dusky Sound, in New Zealand’s remote Fiordland National Park.

Just as Captain James Cook did back in 1773, we think Luncheon Cove in the extreme southwest of the South Island is a good spot to lunch – so we moor and drop fishing lines over the side. Fish nibble as we catch a couple of desirable blue cod, a very fine tarakihi, more blue cod, and then – a seven gill shark as big as a grown woman.

Long before the HMS Resolution arrived in Whetū, which Cook named Pickersgill Harbour, the area’s rich abundance of kaimoana [seafood] and seabirds, made it a hunting ground for ancient Māori, who travelled there by canoe during summer months. In March 1773, Cook and his crew spent five weeks moored in the harbour, becoming the first Europeans to make contact with local iwi.

Two hundred and fifty years later, we are here on a full-day Dusky Sound Experience from Minaret Station, one of New Zealand’s most luxurious alpine lodges located in a glacial valley at the base of Mount Aspiring National Park in the Southern Alps, above Lake Wānaka.

Earlier, as our helicopter lifted sharply out of the valley, smooth velvety mountains were painted gold in the morning light, contrasting with the jagged peaks of the Southern Alps. Our spectacular flight tracked south over Glenorchy, following fog-shrouded riverbeds to Te Anau, where we refuelled and picked up our skipper for the day, local historian Chris Lemin.