Wilderness Lodges of New Zealand

12/10/2026

We are open for 2026-2027.

Wilderness Lodge Lake Moeraki, South Westland is in the heart of protected Te Wahipounamu/South West New Zealand World Heritage Site that covers 10% of our country. The Lodge is 37 years old and still owned by Lodge founders Anne Saunders and Gerry McSweeney.

A team of enthusiastic staff host you at the Lodge that operates in partnership with their Wilderness Lodge Arthur's Pass. We are located on Highway 6 between the Glaciers and Queenstown/Wanaka. Lake Moeraki could not be more wild, beautiful and isolated than those tourism resort towns. We love the ancient rainforests that surround us and the surrounding lake, rivers and Tasman Sea rich in aquatic and marine life.

Lake Moeraki and the surrounding rainforests, water and seacoast are home to Tawaki/Fiordland Crested Penguins, 3rd rarest of the world's 18 penguin species best seen between September and December when they breed here. The area is also rich in native birdlife including kea and kaka parrots, kereru woodpigeons, tui, bellbird, other forest birds and black swan and many duck and cormorant species on the lake. Marine mammals are common on the coastline including Hector's Dolphins, the world's smallest, and NZ Fur Seals-including a number of fur seals that live permanently in Lake Moeraki.

The Lodge's comfortable and stylish accommodations located along the Moeraki RIver provide a warm haven from the storm. Our chefs serve superb food every day in the Moeraki Rapids Restaurant and the Riverside Restaurant. The charm and the challenge of a Wilderness Lodge holiday is to explore the wild surrounding on foot on our network of walking trails or take a safe stable kayak from our fleet of 30 double and single kayaks and explore Lake Moeraki. Conscious of tourism's tradition of heavy fossil fuel usage, we do not offer jetboat or helicopter rides from the Lodge. Instead, we encourage you to explore the wilderness under your own steam and in the company of our skilled nature guides and like-minded other guests.

It is inspiring for us to share this much loved and now fully protected wilderness with our visitors. We encourage you to return home committed to help look after wild nature everywhere. Here are some images of the dramatic landscape that is all around us. www.wildernesslodge.co.nz

06/10/2026

Wilderness Lodge Lake Moeraki has reopened for the 2026-2027 visitor season with our staff team all ready to host you amongst the ancient forests, rivers, lakes and wild seacoast of South Westland.

October and November is part of the Tawaki/Fiordland Crested Penguin breeding season in Southern South Westland and Fiordland where most of the small population of these special birds can be found. Tawaki are the third rarest of the world's 18 (or19) penguin species.

We view Tawaki Penguins with Wilderness Lodge guests on our half day trips. We have also spent the last 36 years monitoring our local penguin population and protecting them from Introduced predators and disturbance.

The Tawaki Project is an voluntary organisation of dedicated researchers also working to protect Tawaki Penguins predominantly in Fiordland.
This is their report from the first two months of the 2026 five-month-long Tawaki breeding season.
www.wildernesslodge.co.nz

28/09/2026

90 Years old.......
The very historic and scenic Highway 73 alongside Wilderness Lodge Arthur's Pass links Canterbury and the West Coast across the Southern Alps.

A short distance west from Wilderness Lodge Arthur's Pass, the Highway 73 single lane bridge crosses the mighty Waimakariri River. 90 years ago, in September 1936, this bridge was first opened to the public ending a very uncertain time for travellers between Canterbury and the West Coast. There had been a truck ferry service at the river for a short time prior to the bridge opening. This forded the river with cars only when the river level was low enough.

Today, outside winter snow conditions, people travel across the Southern Alps on a sealed road with bridges at every stream taking only about 3 hours between Christchurch and the West Coast. It is an easy and scenically spectacular 140km/84 mile drive from Christchurch to the Wilderness Lodge.
www.wildernesslodge.co.nz

23/09/2026

The Moeraki River Catchment and Lake Moeraki are ranked in the highest tiers of New Zealand's Freshwater Ecosystems of Conservation Importance (FENZ) due to their total lack of human-induced fragmentation from its alpine source to its marine terminus.

Today the NZ Police finished an unsuccessful 2 day intensive search of Lake Moeraki by the NZ Navy, Coastguard and the Police Dive Squad sonar and underwater survey investigating whether in 1978 a tourist flight crashed into Lake Moeraki with the loss of all 8 people on board.

The details of the search which made national headlines are in the first comments below.

The search conclusively proves that Lake Moeraki is not where the plane crashed and brings some closure to the families and the volunteer searchers who have looked for it over the last 48 years.

In the media focus on Lake Moeraki, what has perhaps been overlooked is just how special scientifically are the Moeraki River catchment system and Lake Moeraki.

Scientific consensus and extensive assessments by the Department of Conservation (DOC) and freshwater ecologists acknowledge the Moeraki River catchment in South Westland as one of New Zealand's most complete, unmodified, and natural "source-to-sea" river systems. Because the entire catchment is enclosed within Te Wāhipounamu – South Westland World Heritage Area, it has been shielded from the agricultural development, damming, and channelization that affect most other New Zealand waterways.

Several key scientific findings, ecological surveys, and environmental reports validate the pristine nature of this continuous system:

1. Complete Altitudinal and Vegetation Sequence:
Ecological data compiled by DOC shows that the Moeraki River retains an unbroken, fully natural vegetative transition:
*Headwaters: Arising high in the Southern Alps, the upper valley features pristine sub-alpine scrub and intact alpine grasslands.
*Mid-to-Lower Reach: The river flows through dense, ancient podocarp, beech, and hardwood rainforests.
*The Marine Influx: It feeds into the unmodified Lake Moeraki before traveling the final short stretch into the Tasman Sea.

Because there are no land clearances or commercial forestry blocks along its path, there is no artificial sedimentation, making its hydrologic sequence structurally complete

2. Intact Habitats for Indicator Species:
The "source-to-sea" integrity of a catchment is often measured by the health of species that require completely unmodified aquatic environments.
*Whio (Blue Duck): Whio are strict biological indicators of pristine, high-oxygen, fast-flowing river systems. Ongoing conservation monitoring and targeted native releases into the headwaters of the Moeraki River highlight that its water quality and macroinvertebrate populations remain clean enough to support breeding populations
*Forest and Wetland Avifauna: Regular population surveys show that southern South Westland predator control has allowed vulnerable species like the Mohua (yellowhead) and South Island Kākā to expand their ranges directly into the Moeraki catchment.

3. Freedom from Hydrological Modification:
Unlike the majority of New Zealand's large catchments (such as the Waitaki or Clutha systems), which have been heavily modified by hydro-electric dams, irrigation channels, or stopbanks, the Moeraki River is free-flowing. The river preserves its natural hydrological dynamics, including spontaneous floods and freshes. This lack of artificial constraint allows for uninhibited fish passage for migratory native species (such as longfin eels and galaxiids) moving between the sub-alpine streams, the lake, and the ocean

Summary of Scientific and Statutory Protection:
DOC’s West Coast Conservation Management Strategy (CMS) and freshwater classification datasets substantiate the special character of the Moeraki River catchment. These studies routinely rank the Moeraki River catchment in the highest tiers of New Zealand's Freshwater Ecosystems of Conservation Importance (FENZ) due to its total lack of human-induced fragmentation from its alpine source to its marine terminus.

Photo Gilbert van Reenan Clean Green Images

13/09/2026

Beautiful NZ wood pigeon called in Maori, Kukupa, down here at Lake Moeraki in South Westland and in Northland but called Kereru everywhere else in NZ. These large birds can be seen right through New Zealand wherever you find native forests and flowering and fruiting domestic gardens.

Everyone here loves kukupa and kowhai.

In this video the kukupa is feeding on our national flower, Kowhai (Sophora microphylla). Many native birds such as Tui and Bellbird/Korimako pollinate kowhai flowers. Our beautiful Kukupa here is just eating the whole flower. Kowhai is a protein-rich nitrogen-fixing legume tree. It provides welcome nutrition to the kukupa pigeons during the food-scarce early spring.

In the shade kukupa might be fhought to be coloured grey and white. Here, lit up by the sunlight, you can see their great range of green to purple coloured feathers.

There are about 350 species of pigeons and doves in the world. One species, rock/feral pigeons, are found in large numbers in city parks and gardens and are regarded as a pest. They breed prolifically and give the whole pigeon group a bad name. However all the other pigeon species are hugely important in the natural world as pollinators and rainforest fruit dispersers.

Join us and enjoy our guided nature discovery walks this spring.

At Wilderness Lodge Arthur's Pass explore the mountain beech forest, tussock grasslands and the alpine flower gardens of Arthur's Pass National Park. Kea, whio/blue duck and riverbed nesting wrybill, dotterels, gulls and terns are in peak breeding season.

At Wilderness Lodge Lake Moeraki sit in our open hide to watch Tawaki/Fiordland Crested Penguin, 3rd rarest of the world's 18 penguin species. Kukupa pigeon, kaka, tui, korimako/bellbird, karearea/falcon are all around the Lodge in the surrounding ancient beech/podocarp rainforest.

www.wildernesslodge.co.nz

11/09/2026

Wilderness Lodge Nature Guides Hannah Gentle and Joe Taylor have recently been training for our 26/27 visitor season with Lodge Co-Owner and Naturalist Dr Gerry McSweeney.

The Wilderness Seacoast Walk that we guide along the Lake Moeraki coastline is one of the more popular of our 6 regular longer guided trips.. This rarely-visited coastline provides a fascinating opportunity to discover driftwood, gemstones, hardy coastal rainforest and cliff-dwelling fern, and marine life including seabirds and Hector's Dolphins.

On our recent training seacoast walk for almost all the whole 7km trip we watched the world's smallest dolphins frolicking just offshore in the wave break. We counted around 100 dolphins over the 3 hour coastline traverse.

There are 11 armed seastars, green-lipped mussels, golden volute shells, aroha stones, serpentine and some pounamu jade.

11/09/2026

BABY LAMBS!
Our first lambs have just arrived on Cora Lynn Station at Wilderness Lodge Arthur's Pass. These twins were born to one of our tame sheep. Both are beautiful black lambs. Farm Owner Michael has put special woolly white coats on the lambs to supplement their own black fleeces and keep them extra warm in cold springtime winds.

Black-coloured sheep are a recessive gene in the sheep population especially amongst crossbred sheep breeds and less so with Merino sheep.

Black-coloured wool is prized by home spinners and weavers but it is less popular amongst the commercial wool buyers. With our main flock of Merino sheep there are rigid criteria for wool selection for the fashion industry. These tests include measuring fibre length, whiteness, softness (microns), freedom from sticks and dirt contamination (less than 1% vegetable matter) and strength so that the wool does break (not tender). If we can meet all these criteria the price for NZ high quality merino wool is excellent right now.

These two little black lambs with their mother will remain as part of our tame sheep flock. They will be available for bottle-feeding and cuddling by Wilderness Lodge guests when we re-open on 1 October 2026.

www.wildernesslodge.co.nz

07/09/2026

Wilderness Lodge Arthur's Pass is preparing for our 26/26 season opening on 1 October 2026. September is the start of springtime in NZ's Southern Alps mountains.

The strong El Nino weather pattern across New Zealand this year has bought us more wind and rain than usual. It has meant a spectacular cloak of snow across the mountains surrounding the Wilderness Lodge with regular top-ups of snow up high then interrupted by warmer northerly weather melting some of that snow. This has made it a little frustrating for the skifields in our area but we welcome the warmer weather at the Lodge.

On the farm that surrounds the Wilderness Lodge spring pre-lamb shearing of most of the merino and crossbred sheep was finished 10 days ago with great relief to get it done. The wool has been dispatched to the auction houses . There is huge demand from the fashion and outdoor clothing industries for merino wool resulting in the best wool prices in many years. The next focus on the farm is lambing of our sheep and calving of the 100 Angus cattle. Spring is certainly a very busy time for Farm Owner Michael McSweeney and Stock manager Ollie.

Come and stay with us and you can meet the baby lambs and calves, see the Border Collie sheepdogs muster sheep, watch a sheep being shorn and learn about the role of merino wool in the fashion industry.. You can also join our nature guides and explore the beech forests, waterfalls, mountains and spring alpine flowers.
www.wildernesslodge.co.nz

22/08/2026

21 August 2026

Tawaki/ Fiordland Crested Penguin male continues his lonely 28 day vigil incubating his two penguin eggs in Lake Moeraki coastal rainforest, South Westland, New Zealand.

It has been 3 weeks since our last 2 August check of Monitor Nest One. On 2 August the female Tawaki was still at the nest after laying her first egg. She soon after laid a second egg then headed into the Tasman Sea to feed and regain her strength. For 28 days she leaves her mate to incubate both eggs. The eggs will hatch in about the next 10 days.

We are closely watching seabirds including Tawaki penguins on the Lake Moeraki coastline for any signs of the H5 Birdflu epidemic. 3 cases have been reported in NZ in the last month, all from the North Island. Birds in Tasmania and mainland Australia are increasingly being affected including 28 dead Little penguins on King Island in Bass Strait.

Vaccinating birds is seen as one option to reduce bird flu's impact. While feasible with domesticated birds, vaccination with wild birds is very invasive, stressful and challenging.
First you have to find the birds and then catch them. They then have to be microchipped so you can identify them for subsequent follow-up vaccination. You then give them their first vaccination. This has to be repeated 30 days later for the vaccination to work. This vaccination probably only conveys resistance to this year's H5 strain so may have to be repeated next year.

The vaccination video of Little Penguins on Phillip Island, Australia (see link below) shows the stress of this process and these are semi-domesticated penguins using nesting boxes. It will have to be repeated in future years with these birds compounding the stress factor on the birds.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1053139120684534

A review of the Northern Hemisphere impact of H5N1 Birdflu highlights its severe impact in the first year especially on communal nesting birds (ease of transmission) and on older and weaker birds. The second year's infection was much less severe and surviving birds from the first year had a very successful breeding season with reduced numbers of some species replaced by newly bred birds. One conclusion was that greater efforts in predator control, to protect wild birds threatened habitat and their food supply may be a better use of resources than an attempt to capture and vaccinate wild birds.

In the Southern Hemisphere, penguins have generally been less affected by Birdflu than communally nesting terns, gannets and predatory skua and giant petrel. Tawaki do not nest in big communal colonies and their nest sites are generally widely dispersed in coastal rainforest and shrublands.

We will keep monitoring our Tawaki penguins closely over the next 3 months until they depart to the Sourhern Ocean at the end of their breeding season in early December. We work closely with the West Coast Penguin Trust.

www.wildernesslodge.co.nz
West Coast Penguin Trust

18/08/2026

Wilderness Lodge visitor, UK-based journalist Jamie Lafferty, has written an article in the latest July/August 2026 National Geographic Traveller (UK) about discovering Tawaki/Fiordland Crested Penguin from the Wilderness Lodge Lake Moeraki.

"New Zealand's most mysterious penguin" is a new title for Tawaki, 3rd rarest of the world's 18 penguin species. It is also described as the world's only rainforest penguin.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/in-search-of-new-zealands-most-mysterious-penguin

Last year Jamie also published a book about his travels to see all 18 of the world's penguin species including Tawaki.
https://www.google.com/search?q=an+inconvenience+of+penguins+epic+voyages+in+pursuit+of+the+world%27s+most+beloved+bird

The bush-dwelling penguins of New Zealand’s South Island offer Jamie Lafferty an insight into the species’ evolution and migration across the seas.