The Darran Mountains are a prominent range within New Zealand's

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 ...

, the country's biggest national park. They contain the park's highest peak,

Mount Tūtoko Mount Tūtoko is the highest peak in Fiordland National Park, in southwest New Zealand. It lies between the Hollyford Valley and Milford Sound, 15 kilometres due north of the Homer Tunnel at the northern end of the Darran Mountains. The glaci ...

(). The range lies between

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 ...

(Piopiotahi) and the valley of the

Cleddau River The Cleddau River is a river of New Zealand. It flows into the head of Milford Sound. See also *List of rivers of New Zealand This is a list of all waterways named as rivers in New Zealand. A * Aan River * Acheron River (Canterbury) * ...

(to the west) and the broad valley of the

Hollyford River The Hollyford River / Whakatipu Kā Tuka is in the southwest of the South Island of New Zealand. It runs for through Fiordland, its sources being close to the Homer Tunnel and in Gertrude Valley in the southern Darran Mountains. At first, the ...

to the east at the northern end of the national park. They are bounded to the south by the Homer Saddle, which separates them from the Wick Mountains, and to the north by the coast of the

Tasman Sea The Tasman Sea ( Māori: ''Te Tai-o-Rēhua'', ) is a marginal sea of the South Pacific Ocean, situated between Australia and New Zealand. It measures about across and about from north to south. The sea was named after the Dutch explorer ...

. 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 ...

lies under the southwesternmost extreme of the range.Dowling, P. (ed.) (2004). ’’Reed New Zealand atlas’’. Auckland: Reed Publishing. Map 89. Other than Mount Tūtoko, other prominent peaks in the range include

Mount Madeline Mount is often used as part of the name of specific mountains, e.g. Mount Everest. Mount or Mounts may also refer to: Places * Mount, Cornwall, a village in Warleggan parish, England * Mount, Perranzabuloe, a hamlet in Perranzabuloe parish, ...

() and

Mount Christina Mount is often used as part of the name of specific mountains, e.g. Mount Everest. Mount or Mounts may also refer to: Places * Mount, Cornwall, a village in Warleggan parish, England * Mount, Perranzabuloe, a hamlet in Perranzabuloe parish, ...

(). Numerous lakes and

tarns A tarn (or corrie loch) is a proglacial mountain lake, pond or pool, formed in a cirque excavated by a glacier. A moraine may form a natural dam below a tarn. Etymology The word is derived from the Old Norse word ''tjörn'' ("a small moun ...

are found within the range, among the largest being

Lake Adelaide Lake Adelaide is a lake located in the northwest corner of Highlands County, Florida. It is bounded on the north by Holiday Ranch RV Park, which borders the Polk-Highlands County line, on the east by Adelaide Shores RV Resort and on the west by ...

and

Lake Marian Lake Marian is an alpine lake at the southern end of the Darran Mountains in the Fiordland National Park in the South Island of New Zealand. The lake is located just above the treeline in a hanging valley leading northwest from the Hollyford Valley ...

, and several rivers have their watershed in the mountains, such as the Tūtoko, Kaipo, and Bowen Rivers. The Bowen River, close to its mouth, provides one of Milford Sound's more notable natural attractions, the

Bowen Falls The Bowen Falls ( mi, Hineteawa), also known as Lady Bowen Falls, is a popular tourist attraction at Milford Sound, a fiord in New Zealand. The long Bowen River located in Fiordland National Park supplies the waterfall with water; the Bowen Ri ...

. The mountains were named by Captain J. Stokes, an early surveyor of the West Coast of the South Island. Reed, A.W. (1975). ''Place names of New Zealand''. Wellington: A.H. & A.W. Reed. p. 99.

References

Mountain ranges of Fiordland {{fiordland-geo-stub