Blogs from Te Anau, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 20

This entry seemed to get missed out - so inserting it now. Today we had another long journey via Queenstown to Te Anau, deep in the Southern Fiordland. However, before setting off we climbed up the short walk to the Tasman glacier viewpoint. For our efforts we were rewarded with a far ranging view back up the glacier, and lots more floating icebergs. The journey down to Queenstown passed through very scenic hilly country, adorned with beautiful lupin displays again along the way. We finally arrived just outside QT and stopped at the Kewarau Bridge, home of the original bungee jump. Alan had declared his intention to try this while we’re here, so we went to watch the hapless participants perch on the bridge and pluck up courage to jump. The setting is beautiful - a ... read more

November 26th - Day one of the KT was mostly uphill. We gained quite a bit of elevation for the distance, though I don't remember specifics. Even so, at the top we were only around 4000 feet above sea level. Most of the day we hiked through beech forest covered in ferns and wildflowers and crazy mosses and lichens. That landscape was beautiful. Toward the end, though, we came out of the trees and into a part that was covered in tussock grass. As we walked we started to feel something hitting our faces. I thought, “that can't be snow” and said as much to Masa, but it surely was. It snowed all that night and by the morning the area around the hut was a late spring wonderland... the closest to a white Thanksgiving I'd ... read more

When we got to New Zealand, we spent some time in Christchurch to gear up for our hike in the fjordlands, but mainly our first few days in NZ were spent getting to Te Anau - the place we were starting our hike. The track we planned to walk was the Kepler Track, a four day Great Walk through some of the extremely beautiful Fjordlands, a World Heritage Area (but then, aren't they all?) We laid down some cash in Christchurch for warmer gear, because as we quickly discovered New Zealand is not nearly as warm as we'd thought it might be. Even though it was allegedly late spring early summer, we were at 45 degrees latitude. It was cold. Our first two nights were spent in Christchurch at a really great Backpacker place called the ... read more

Wednesday 8th November Laura - Today we went for a tour around Milford Sound on the Fiord Lands, and also experienced all four seasons of weather! It was an early start as we had to make the 100Km drive from Te Anau to the sounds. The drive was very scenic, passing through wooded valleys and snow capped mountains. It was a grey and wet morning, but we weren't too bothered about this because apparently the fiords look spectacular even in the rain. As we drove up into the mountains it started to snow quite heavily. We were slightly concerned because we didn't want to get stuck in Milford Sound for the night. Also because we hadn't carried snow chains with us as advised in the tourist leaflet... Anyway, we passed through Homer Tunnel (a very creepy ... read more