Abstract Studies of convergent margins suggest that large subhorizontal shear zones in the lower crust help regulate how displacements are transferred horizontally and vertically through the lithosphere. We present structural data from the Fiordland belt of SW New Zealand that illustrate the progressive evolution of a 25 km thick section of exhumed, Early Cretaceous middle and lower crust. The data show that the mechanisms by which displacements were relayed through the crust during a 25 Ma cycle of arc-related magmatism, high-grade metamorphism and contraction changed repeatedly. During the period 126–120 Ma, a ≥10 km thick batholith composed of gabbroic-dioritic magma was emplaced into the lower crust. Melt-enhanced shear zones evolved at the upper and lower contacts of the batholith where magma and steep temperature gradients created strength contrasts. By ∼ 120 Ma, partial melting of mafic-intermediate lower crust resulted in the formation of high-pressure (14–16 kbar) migmatite and steep, regionally extensive vein networks up to 10 km below the batholith. Melt segregation and transfer through and out of the lower crust were aided by melt-induced fracture arrays and ductile deformation in shear zones. During the period 116–105 Ma, differential shortening of the crust produced a network of subhorizontal and subvertical shear zones at different crustal depths. Near-vertical shear zones up to 15 km wide formed at the deepest part of the section. These shear zones cut upwards across the entire lower crust to merge with a gently dipping upper amphibolite facies fold-and-thrust zone that formed in the middle crust. A 1 km thick, subhorizontal shear zone underlies this mid-crustal fold-and-thrust zone and physically connected shear zones that formed at different crustal depths. Our data suggest that deformation above and below this mid-lower crustal attachment zone was coupled kinematically and accommodated subhorizontal arc-normal displacements in the middle crust and oblique sinistral displacements on steep shear zones in the lower crust. The steep lower crustal shear zones also record components of subhorizontal arc-normal shortening and vertical thickening. These results strongly suggest that large, kinematically coupled networks of flat and steep shear zones separated the Fiordland crust into distinctive structural domains and relayed displacements vertically and horizontally through the lithosphere during Early Cretaceous oblique convergence.