The oldest European settlements are supposed to have been in the Southland (both Riverton and Bluff lay claim to the title). More startling, perhaps, is that Maori were well-established here, as it’s hard to imagine conditions more remote from their ancestral Polynesia. There’s little between the south coast and Antarctica, and winter brings rapidly alternating bands of hail and sleet and a huge, pounding surf.

The best way to experience the charms of Southland is to drive the Southern Scenic Route, a trip that scribes a lazy arc around the bottom of the South Island, via the picturesque Catlins to Dunedin. However, if you neglect to take a detour to Riverton and the gorgeous Te Waewae Bay , you have officially missed out. Similarly, New Zealanders who claim to know their country without having been across Foveaux Strait to Stewart Island can’t be taken that seriously.

Like the rest of the South Island, the region was heavily forested before human intervention. Some of the region’s most impressive historical sites, such as the Port Craig viaducts on the boundary of Fiordland National Park, and the remains of the bush railways in the Catlins area, are associated with the Southland timber boom.

The coast itself is beautiful, but cold and wild. In the west is the vastness of Fiordland National Park. Created by the effect of massive glaciation, Fiordland is a maze of jagged mountains and deep, steep-walled valleys.

It’s unspeakably beautiful, particularly where the landscape meets the sea in the fiords that give the area its name. Most famous of these is Milford Sound , a long, sheltered waterway presided over by towering mountains including the neat, triangular Mitre Peak. It’s one of New Zealand’s iconic landscapes and familiar to people the world over. Doubtful Sound and Dusky Sound, while less accessible, are just as beautiful.