Mt Titiroa is a prominent landmark of the Te Anau Basin

Lake Te Anau

Lake Te Anau is in the southwestern corner of the South Island of New Zealand. Its name was originally Te Ana-au, Maori for 'The cave of swirling water'. The lake covers an area of 344 km², making it the second-largest lake by surface area in New Zealand and the largest in the South Island...

 area of northern Southland on the eastern flank of Fiordland National Park

Fiordland National Park

Fiordland National Park occupies the southwest corner of the South Island of New Zealand. It is the largest of the 14 national parks in New Zealand, with an area of 12,500 km², and a major part of the Te Wahipounamu World Heritage site...

. It is known for its white granite

Granite

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

 rock which gives its summit the appearance of lingering snow even throughout the summer months, and is clearly visible from Te Anau

Te Anau

Te Anau is a town in the South Island of New Zealand. It is on the eastern shore of Lake Te Anau in Fiordland. Lake Te Anau is the largest lake in the South Island and second only within New Zealand to Lake Taupo. The 2001 census recorded the town's population as 1,857...

 township.

The mountain summit area is known as Geiger's Garden, and sports a number of oddly shaped boulders caused by exfoliation in the granties. These are popular with photographers and mountaineer

Mountaineer

-Sports:*Mountaineering, the sport, hobby or profession of walking, hiking, trekking and climbing up mountains, also known as alpinism-University athletic teams and mascots:*Appalachian State Mountaineers, the athletic teams of Appalachian State University...

s.

In the 1990s, the Havoc

Mikey Havoc

Mikey Havoc , also known colloquially as Havo is a New Zealand media personality.-Music:Roberts was the lead singer of the New Zealand glam metal group Push Push, best known for its 1991 number one singles "What My Baby Likes" and "Trippin'". He is now a house music DJ...

 and Newsboy

Jeremy Wells

Jeremy "Newsboy" Wells is a New Zealand television personality, most famous as the host of TVNZ's satirical news show, Eating Media Lunch. He is also a co-host of The Saturday Special radio show with Steve Simpson on New Zealand radio station bFM.Wells was born in Auckland, New Zealand, the son of...

 television series did a spoof episode

Mockumentary

A mockumentary , is a type of film or television show in which fictitious events are presented in documentary format. These productions are often used to analyze or comment on current events and issues by using a fictitious setting, or to parody the documentary form itself...

 on Mount Titiroa looking for a lost civilization, in which they sat astride a rock outcrop shaped like a giant stone turtle

Turtle

Turtles are reptiles of the order Testudines , characterised by a special bony or cartilaginous shell developed from their ribs that acts as a shield...

. Shortly after the TV broadcast the New Zealand Department of Conservation

New Zealand Department of Conservation

The Department of Conservation , commonly known by its acronym, "DOC", is the state sector organisation which deals with the conservation of New Zealand’s natural and historic heritage...

announced that no commercial guides would be allowed to take people into the Mount Titiroa area.