Lake Fergus is a lake in the

South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...

of New Zealand, located at .

Geography

A small lake between Lake Te Anau and

Milford Sound Milford Sound / Piopiotahi is a fiord in the south west of New Zealand's South Island within Fiordland National Park, Piopiotahi (Milford Sound) Marine Reserve, and the Te Wahipounamu World Heritage site. It has been judged the world's top tr ...

, it lies adjacent to the State Highway 94 (SH94; the Milford Sound Road). The lake is within the boundary of the

Fiordland National Park Fiordland National Park occupies the southwest corner of the South Island of New Zealand. It is by far the largest of the 13 national parks in New Zealand, with an area of , and a major part of the Te Wahipounamu World Heritage Site. The park ...

, and is surrounded by native bush. The west branch of the

Eglinton River The Eglinton River is located in the region of Southland in the southwest of New Zealand. It flows through Fiordland National Park for . Its headwaters are at Lake Gunn, east of Milford Sound, and it flows generally south before entering Lake Te A ...

flows through the lake, and it drains into

Lake Gunn Lake Gunn is a lake in the South Island of New Zealand, located at . Geography A small lake between Lake Te Anau and Milford Sound / Piopiotahi, it lies close to the New Zealand State Highway 94 (the Milford Road) and the Divide of the Souther ...

located south of it.

History

The first Europeans to explore the valley were David McKellar and George Gunn in 1861, two runholders from Southland. William H. Homer (after whom the

Homer Tunnel The Homer Tunnel is a 1.2 km (0.75 miles) long road tunnel in the Fiordland region of the South Island of New Zealand, opened in 1953. New Zealand State Highway 94 passes through the tunnel, linking Milford Sound to Te Anau and Queensto ...

is named) and George Barber explored the area in search for a route from Lake Wakatipu to

in 1889, setting off from Glenorchy and travelling via the Greenstone Valley. They saw the lake on 4 January, named it after

Thomas Fergus Thomas Fergus (6 April 1850 or 1851 – 29 September 1914) was a 19th-century New Zealand politician. Early life Thomas Fergus was born in Ayr Scotland on 6 April 1850. There is some question as to his date of birth as the New Zealand Governmen ...

, the

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

for the Wakatipu electorate at the time, and left the following inscription in a log:

This lake was seen and named on January 4th, 1889, 'Lake Fergus', by W. H. Homer and G. Barber.

On this journey, the explorers found what they called the Homer Saddle on 27 January. Homer suggested that a tunnel through the saddle would provide access to the Milford area. The Eglington Valley Road past Lake Fergus, now known as SH94, was completed in 1935, giving easy access to the lake for the first time. The Homer Tunnel opened to traffic in 1953, giving visitors reason to drive past Lake Fergus.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fergus, Lake Lakes of Fiordland