Blogs from Doubtful Sound, Fiordland National Park, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 4

We just returned from a wonderful 6 day trip to the southwest part of New Zealand, also known as “Fjiordland”. It took us about 7 hours to drive from the east side of NZ (South Pacific Ocean) all the way to the west side (Tasman Sea). Despite the beautiful scenery, it is still a lot of time in the car, so we have been listening to books on tape borrowed from the Timaru library, which is quite enjoyable and makes the driving time go faster. Our first destination was Lake Manapouri, which was the starting point for our overnight cruise to Doubtful Sound. It is an odd name, given to this body of water which is actually a fjiord (narrow waterway carved from a glacier) and not a “sound” at all. Captain James Cook named ... read more

I decided against the well known, famous Milford Sound to go for a 2 day, over-night cruise to the more remote Doubtful Sound. This was a great trip! I met a lad from Whales who was quickly my new pal, then we hooked up with 3 Americans and all hung out and had a great time. Two of the Americans, Chris and Susan, are touring the world for one year as their honeymoon! Their friend, Jerry, was crashing the honeymoon for a week and they were now calling it their "jerrymoon". The tour involved an amazing kayake trip through the Sound, followed by cocktails watching the sunset fromt he cruise and an excellent, huge gourment meal. I had a few too many wines and at after dinner, gave them a great rendition of the "Southern Cross" ... read more

A Maori legend has it that long ago a god-like being, Tu-te-raki-whanoa, wielded his axe to carve out the landscape of South Island. If you look at a map of the southern end of South Island, you might well believe it. Indeed, the island's southwestern coast, facing Australia and the Tasman Sea, does look like it has had an axe taken to it - convoluted and narrow inlets seemingly hewn out of the spine of the Alps. Southland's dozens of fjords are in fact the result not of a cosmic axe but of millions of years of erosion by immense rivers of ice - glaciers. Now retreated, the glaciers dug deep V-shaped valleys into the mountain rock. Fiordland (with an i...) is the result. Our gateway to Fiordland is Manapouri, a small settlement that has played ... read more