Lake Marian

Lake Marian sits in a hanging valley beneath the Darran Mountains, and the walk to it divides sharply in two. The first twenty minutes is a boardwalk from the car park across a swing bridge to a viewing platform over a chain of cascades in a rock chute - easy, and worth doing on its own. Everything after that is a rough climb of about an hour and a half through beech forest, over roots and boulders, gaining around four hundred metres with several stream crossings, and it is genuinely hard going rather than merely uphill. At the top the forest ends abruptly at a lake in a bowl of near-vertical rock with waterfalls coming off the walls and the Darrans above. There are no facilities and no shelter. The track floods in heavy rain and the crossings become impassable; Fiordland rainfall means this is a frequent rather than occasional problem. Sandflies at the lake are severe.

What you actually see

• The cascades boardwalk - twenty easy minutes to the first platform.
• The lake bowl - vertical rock walls with waterfalls off them.
• The Darran Mountains - above the far end of the lake.
• The rough climb - roots, boulders and stream crossings.

When to go

December to March. Avoid after heavy rain - the crossings become impassable and the track is a stream. Snow can linger into December at the top.

Honest expectations

Beyond the boardwalk it is a hard, rough, root-and-boulder climb, not a walk. Stream crossings flood. Sandflies at the lake are among the worst in Fiordland. No shelter at the top.

Nearby

The Hollyford Valley runs north; Milford Sound and the Homer Tunnel are west.