Chalky Inlet

Taiari / Chalky Inlet is one of the southernmost fiords in Fiordland, in the southwestern corner of New Zealand's South Island and part of Fiordland National Park. As with the neighbouring fiords of Tamatea / Dusky Sound to the north and Rakituma / Preservation Inlet to the south, Taiari / Chalky Inlet is a complex fiord with many channels and islands along its roughly 28 km length. Most notably, this includes the sections Moana-whenua-pōuri / Edwardson Sound and Te Korowhakaunu / Kanáris Sound, which split at Divide Head in the middle of Taiari and each extend for roughly 10 km inland in a V-shape.

Despite its remoteness, Taiari / Chalky Inlet has seen frequent waves of human interaction. Early European accounts suggest that a population of Māori inhabited the fiord for a time, while battles between iwi are said to have taken place in neighbouring Rakituma, but the extent of this habitation is not known.