Pining for the Fijords

---

WARNING. THIS BLOG CONTAINS 10 ZILLION WATERFALL SHOTS. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

‘‘Look’’, exclaimed Shaz ‘‘It’s a dead parrot!’’
‘‘It’s not dead’’ said Alan ‘‘It’s just tired out after a long squawk.’’ (laughs).
About 5 weeks ago we’d stopped at the side of the road to admire / photo a nice mountain view. As we got out of the car, Shaz spied the said (truly dead) bird next to the front wheel. Such is our humour these days; razor sharp and totally plagiarised. Of course that story has nothing to do with this blog, other than a mild reference to the title. NOTE: All non Monty Python fans, may, at this stage, leave the building.

So we’ve found ourselves Daan Saaaaf (down south) in Fjord land. We came here with the specific purpose of going on a couple of cruises to experience the 2 major ‘Sounds’ - Milford and Doubtful. The thing is though, that while these waterways are referred to as Sounds, they are in fact Fjords. ‘’What’s the difference?’’ you cry… Well, dear readers, the difference is that a Fjord is a water channel leading to the sea which has been carved out by glaciers, and a Sound has been created by river erosion. Hhmmmm…every day’s a school day y’know.

We think we arrived in Te Anau on Tuesday, however we have started to forget what day it is, and have to work it out on our fingers to keep ourselves up to date. Te Anau is a funky little town with lots of eateries and bars and a Crazy Golf park, situated on a lake of the same name, which is as serene as it is long and deep (417 metres at its lowest point). ‘Te Anau’ means ‘Cave with Swirling Waters’, this bearing reference to the caves on the opposite, more desolate, rain-forested side of the lake.

The journey from Queenstown was pleasant & sunny, and we arrived in Te Anau about 2pm, setting out immediately to fix ourselves up with some excursion tickets. As it happened there was a special offer on with a company called ‘Real Journeys’ whereby if we booked the trips to Milford and Doubtful at the same time, we qualified for a free trip to see some Glow Worm Caves. We decided to go for it as we planned to do both trips anyway, and arranged our Glow Worm outing for that very evening.

GLOW WORMS
The true cost of this trip without the special offer doo da, works out at about 20 quid per person. Our advice - save your money as it’s not an amazing deal. We’ll tell you about it anyway;
According to our guide, Glow Worms are a phenomenon which exist only in New Zealand and certain parts of Australia (Tasmania was mentioned).They are not actually worms, but small fly larvae which give off a cold light caused by a chemical reaction in their bodies triggered by hunger pangs. The hungrier the larvae, the brighter the glow, attracting flying insects toward them from within the pitch black depths of the cave. As the insects approach, they are captured on sticky ‘fishing lines’ which dangle down from each larva, and are pulled up when dinner is caught! Now we say ‘glow’, yet we are not by any stretch talking 40 watts here. The Glow Worms are really miniscule, and radiate a weak blue-ish haze, not unlike a set of dud Ikea Xmas lights from 1985 or something akin to that.

The tour itself is a bit ‘drawn out’. We were picked up at 8pm from the Visitor Centre on Lake Te Anau, and sped across to the other side in a fast catamaran, taking about 20 mins. At this time of night it’s way dark and you see nothing by way of scenery, especially in these quiet, sparsely populated areas of the country - there are zero lights outside the town. If anyone reading this is dead set on seeing the Glow Worms, then we recommend taking an early timeslot as the lakes are very calm in the morning with a thick soupy fog resting on the water, making the experience of cruising along much more impressive as you glance up at the moody mountains all around you. When we got to the Glow Worm caves, we were ushered into a reception room where we were shown 3 video presentations about the local vicinity, mostly still photography of flora & fauna and some general info about the Glow Worms themselves. The next thing to happen was a separation of the group into 3 x 11, the ordering of which was unfortunately taken out of our hands. We tried DESPERATELY to avoid being placed with this American family featuring ‘Top Irritating Loud Kid 2006’, except guess where we landed???? Yip that’s right, but Alan’s reaction was hilarious…. He said ‘ I’m gonnae pan that wee tube’s melt in if he disny shut it!!!’.

The actual trip into the cave lasts only about 20mins, but to be honest that’s enough. A dimly lit entrance with a metal grid walkway leads you sub terra, below a low hanging rock face, which in normal circumstances we’d have limbo’d under, were there not a sign warning that this was not allowed. Hence we crawled into the cave (well, we stooped down a wee bit). It was a birrova palaver…… we walked along for a minute or two past some underground rushing rivers, then got into a boat with wet seats for two mins, then back out and another short walk and into another wetter boat. Cue soaked batties, Tsk!!. It was at the point which we got into the second boat that the guide switched off the lights and pronounced ‘Silence!’. And lo, the Glow Worms were exposed in all their underwhelming glory! Teeny, and we do mean teeny, blue pinpricks in the blackness above. The guide actually pulled the vessel around on a bit of rope above our heads for a circular 5 or 6 metres, maybe for about 5 mins, then its on with the lights and the return stint of the ‘in-and-out-of-boats’ malarky recommenced, culminating in a half hour hang around at the reception area drinking coffee and perusing mediocre displays which you can appreciate in about 3 mins flat. Do please pardon our moany-ness about this, it’s just that we felt it was a waste of an evening. Three things to round off this story:
1) The wee American guy (Connor was his name) and his parents got into trouble from the guide for incessant talking (hahahahah!)
2) There wasn’t really a ‘no limbo’ sign on the way into the cave. We made that up.
3) There was NO photography allowed on the trip. Although - there was nowt to photograph anyway in the dark.

Before telling you about our next voyage, we just want to say a few words about campervan accommodation here in NZ. We’ve purchased a discount card for this chain of sites called ‘Top 10’. The card costs $30 (about 12 quid) and saves you 10% each time you visit a site. So if you work out that over the course of say 3 months we’ll be staying in one of these sites most nights, it’s a helluva saving. And their sites are really fabby. Spotlessly clean, they all have good sized pitches, comfy TV rooms, big sparkly kitchens and most have internet facilities (although they are a bit expensive at $2 for 15 mins but OK for quick email checks and so on). Some places have also offered spa baths at very good rates, and the best bit of all is the quietness at night. We’ve hardly had a bad night’s sleep since we picked up Beryl 4 weeks ago. There is however a bit of ‘camper envy’ that goes on, we have noticed. You’ll always get auld guys wandering around checking out your wheels, and so many come up and ask you what price you paid and can they have a look inside. It’s a bit weird but quite funny at the same time. Mostly the parks are full of hire vans. Big fancy affairs costing upwards of $150 per day from places such as Maui, Pacific Horizons and Apollo - but it’s mainly been Maui that we’ve seen the most of. Then you have other daftness going on, like people travelling & sleeping in their cars and paying for a pitch with electricity hook up. Don’t know what electrical gadgetry they have going on in their VW Estates requiring three pin sockets, but we guess that’s their business. And last night we were walking back to Beryl from the kitchen at Te Anau, and we saw these bobbing lights at the end of our row where a number of tent pitches were situated. We had a bit of a look and it turned out to be two campers, sitting at a picnic table eating their dinner in the dark with those miners helmets on, in an ‘Orb’ stylee. Most beezarre! We’ve bought a heater for Beryl too as it was starting to get a trifle chilly in the night time. Again, the Warehouse came up trumps, and we made a purchase of a small fan heater for about 5 pounds, which heats up Beryl toastie style in about 2 mins flat! Lastly - we got a flat battery again yesterday. We left the lights on all day in a car park while we went out to the Doubtful Sound (it had been foggy in the morning) and returned to a non starting engine. Fortunately there was a garage round the corner and a nice man came and gave us a jump start and charged us $10 for his trouble - but at least we were on our way after that!!!

And on with the blogggggg…………

MILFORD SOUND
Lovely, beautiful, gorgeous, perfect, wonderful Milford Sound. Yes we quite liked it!

If you are staying in Te Anau, then the drive to Milford is about 2.5 hours North through some amazing and diverse scenery (rainforest, mirror lakes, snow capped mountains, rocky scrub and golden fields). On arrival in Milford you have to register with your tour company in the vast check in hall next to the wharf. There is nothing else in Milford apart from the wharf, the hall, a car park and a café, therefore if one were to drive here expecting accommodation, one might be sorely disappointed. Top tip: Stay in Te Anau! We were driving Beryl to Milford as it’s much more expensive to catch the link buses, or go on an extended organised tour. Plus we don’t really like tour buses very much (more about that later). Also, Diesel is a good price here in NZ - about $1.17 a litre (50p)

We had booked to go on a Nature Watch tour as they have onboard nature guides who mingle with the passengers advising of best places to look to see dolphins, seals and sea birds. There is also the added perk that there is no constant tannoy messaging in 5 different languages which is apparent on trips run by rival companies. The boat we went on was about three times the size that it was supposed to be (there was a problem that day with the usual one) however Real Journeys did really well by keeping the numbers down to 150 people - so same sized party, just a bigger boat. This was great as it was easy to mill around and see everything without any jostling.

Milford Sound is a 22km long fjord extending to the Tasman Sea at it’s most westerly point. It was discovered by Captain Cook umpteen years ago, (can’t remember the date) after he had sailed past it three times not realising that it was a channel heading in-land. It is difficult to identify from the sea - we know this as we sailed outside and were able to look back and verify it. There are lots and lots of spectacular waterfalls - which you will no doubt be scunnered looking at these from our photographs, sorry - splashing and thrashing downwards at phenomenal speeds into the calm waters below, and so many magnificent cliff faces, featuring rock strewn landslide zones caused by earthquakes (which are prevalent in this area). Other points of interest were the small planes whizzing between the scraggy peaks and forested hilltops, carrying passengers on sightseeing trips over the fjords, and the other boats gently cruising along the length of the channel.

We were hoping to see some penguins on this trip, but it wasn’t to be. However we were privy to some brilliant acrobatic displays carried out by pods of bottlenose dolphins residing nearby. We also saw some fur seals, although there were only a few here, and we had a much better experience of these animals the next day when we visited the enigmatic Doubtful Sound, further South down the coast.


DOUBTFUL SOUND
Gosh - am getting a bit tired typing now tonight, so will try to keep this part as short as I can. And am sure you are fed up reading by now - although at least you can stop whenever you like…..I’ve got to ‘keep on keeping on’, otherwise cousin Gary will give us into trouble for not providing up to date blogs!! (see - we do listen to you!)

The Doubtful Sound - as you’ll see from the photos- was really dark and moody. The cloud coverage was fantastic, and provided a strange, foreboding, spooky atmosphere - just what we were hoping for in order to prevent a ‘Groundhog day’ situation, given that we had undertaken a similar type of jaunt the day before, to Milford.

This trip starts from Manapouri, which is 20kms down the road from Te Anau. Because there is no direct road link to the Doubtful Sound, you have to catch a boat to the opposite end of Lake Manapouri, then get on a bus to Deep Cove at the beginning of the fjord. The trip itself on this day was less enjoyable in that we were herded about somewhat in a group of three packed out buses. We really hate this because the coach drivers do this thing where they stop the bus every two mins and suggest you get off to take photos - even if the weather / visibility is not conducive to capturing a good shot. We got really fed up on the way back as we felt there was too much faffing about. However, the day was mostly great and we had a top time on the boat - which was brand new, save for 2 weeks!

On the way back we stopped off for a visit at Manapouri Hydro Power Station which is the largest power station in NZ, generating about 30% of the country’s total electricity. It was very interesting and we were able to compare it to Cruachin Hydro Power Station in Scotland which we visited with Alan’s dad last March - probably around the same time of year now we come to think of it! Freaky huh?! Here is a link to both sites to find out more about them if you are interested:
www.meridianenergy.co.nz
http://www.scottishpower.com


So - that’s probably enough chit chat about Te Anau and the Fjords. Am off to bed to get a good night’s sleep as we’re off to Dunedin in the morning….. An Edinburgh in the southern hemisphere???? We’ll let you know!

See ya’s
Alan & Shaz. xxx

---

Photos

Shaz feels the cold on Lake Manapouri, on the way to Doubtful Sound
Looking like she's doing an impression of one of those Chinese 'good luck' waving porcelein cat things.

The Mitre Peak, Milford.
So called because of it's resemblance to a Bishops hat. This mountain rises one mile straight out of the sea, and is one of the highest mountains in the world that does this.

Motel on the water, Doubtful Sound.
Can't remember the relevance of wanting this on the blog - will need to ask Alan and then we'll update later.

More clouds.
Incidentally - you might think we switched to B&W but we didn't. This is the natural colours of the Doubtful Sound. On the day we visited anyway.

Sound of Silence
At one point during our cruise we had to all go out on the deck - all 200 of us or so - and be deathly quiet to hear the 'sound of silence'. Anyway - we'd had a couple of glasses of red wine at the bar, and got the giggles while everyone else looked on reproachfully. Basically all you could hear was some birds singing and our sniggers. If anyone who was on our boat is reading this,then we apologise if we wasted the moment. Ish.

Lake Manapouri after our trip, about 6pm.
This ws taken about 5 mins before we realised that we'd flattened the battery in Beryl AGAIN, by leaving the lights on. This is what happens when you rely on beeping 'reminder' noises in your car for years on end. We are thinking of getting a big sign and taping it to the dashboard saying 'Switch off ALL lights'.

Alan and the Rubberneckers.
We don't like coach transportation on an excursion. We plan not to do it again as the driver stops every two mins and announces a 'viewpoint' or 'photo opportunity' and everyone piles out onto the road with camera in hand. It's crap.

They come here to give birth and mate.
Interesting factoid: Female Seals are only NOT pregnant for an average of 8 days out of the year. Imagine that, ladies.