[3] Fiordland is well-known for its isolation, steep mountainous terrain, and notoriously bad weather, so such an expedition would need good communication, several camps, a large and experienced team, and the support of several governmental departments.

In early January 1949, Howard and the team of field personnel sailed on the MV Alert with most of the expedition gear from Bluff and Milford to a small camp that they set up at Caswell Sound.

[3] They prepared for the arrival of the scientific teams by unloading and packing stores and equipment, establishing camps, and cutting tracks for the rest of the expedition party.

[3] The field party hauled stores and equipment by land to Lake Marchant, and from there, prams with outboard motors were used to ship the gear to base camp.

For the duration of the expedition from January through May 1949, stores were shipped via road from Invercargill using New Zealand Army trucks that transported them through the partially completed Homer Tunnel to Milford.

[18] The botanists on the expedition observed based on field evidence that the diet of wapiti and red deer in Fiordland comprised several preferred shrubs and trees, including Pseudopanax colensoi, Raukaua simplex, Griselinia littoralis, Coprosma foetidissima and Muehlenbeckia australis.

[3] Griselinia littoralis was the most frequent and abundant plant found, with Nothofagus menziesii in second place, but several other trees and shrubs, as well as ferns, grasses, sedges were also able to be identified from the stomach remains.

[4] During the five months of the expedition, the team had only 15[4] (or possibly 17[17]) fine days, yet they still managed to "provide height and position control for detailed mapping form aerial photographs".

[19] Additional reports on the following topics were also written up: geology, climate, botany (including a list of plants observed and their abundance),[13] forests, small introduced mammals (possums, rats, mice and mustelids), invertebrates, fish (freshwater and marine), birds, land survey, and opportunities for tourism.