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Published: November 10th 2008
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Roaring Meg on the Kawhau River
The blue of this river can only be adequately described as "startling" 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 it such in the 1800’s when, as the first European explorer to investigate the area, he “doubted” that he would be able to turn his ship around inside the narrow waterway!!
On most travelers’ itineraries to New Zealand, a trip to Milford Sound, a neighboring fjiord, is a must, but we had heard that Doubtful is 10 times larger, more remote,
and even more beautiful. Given the luxury of time, we booked tickets for an overnight cruise through “Real Journeys.” We left Lake Manapouri at noon on Saturday, had a 45 minute boat ride across the lake to a remote area serviced by only one road, over which we had another 45 minute trip to Deep Cove, where we boarded the Fjiordland Navigator with 35 other passengers. The boat was only half full, which was great for us, especially since we had booked “quad accommodations,” but Randy and I had the entire quad room for just the 2 of us.
The ship was spotlessly clean, including the shared bathrooms. Both dinner and breakfast were included, as well as an afternoon “soup break,” and the food was terrific. We cruised the length of Doubtful Sound as far as the Tasman Sea, saw rare endangered Fjiordland penguins, and seals, but mostly we were awed by the majestic scenery. There are huge rocky land masses rising straight up from the sea, more waterfalls than you could imagine, and the vastness of it all is even more striking in that there are hardly any other boats around. It is very quiet and still.
We stopped for the night and had a chance to kayak off the boat. Darkness did not fall until about 9 pm. The absolutely most special part of the trip came the next morning when the captain took us into “Hall Arm,” a side fjiord, where the weather conditions were absolutely perfect and we could see the mountains, waterfalls and clouds perfectly reflected in the still water. The mirror images were so clear that it appeared that the reflected waterfalls were flowing skyward!! This region is known for its many waterfalls-sometimes there were 6 in view at once!! The geologic reason is that there are alpine lakes on top of the mountains, and they spill over the side of the rock when it rains. Since it rains about 20 feet of rain per year (yes, you heard that right!), there are a LOT of waterfalls to see. We knew it was an unusual day when we saw that even the crew had their cameras out!!
Of course, one of the nicest parts of the trip was that we had an opportunity to meet and talk with lots of nice people; some locals, and some travelers.
Bungie jumping
absolutely NOT for me! Our next day we drove to the nearby picturesque town of Te Anau, where we enjoyed a walk around part of the lake which included visiting a bird sanctuary, and then we took an excursion to the Glowworm Caves, which was a combination walk/boat ride inside a deep cave with a river rushing through it. At one point the lights are extinguished, and you glide in perfect darkness with points of light all around you (the glow-worms).
The following day we joined Real Journeys again for a 1 day Milford Walk. Milford Track is a famous 4 day walk between Lake Te Anau and Milford Sound, but as it involves( the dreaded!) camping, I was happy to get just a taste of it doing the one day tramp. It was a beautiful, flat walk through ancient beech forests with orange spongy moss in some wetland areas, over a suspension bridge and along a river. We did about 7-8 miles of walking that day. We walked as far as the first hut (for those who are continuing on to do the whole walk) and then back again to the start. Our companions were our guide, Richard, a young
Purple lupins
just stunning! woman from Austria who is working and traveling in NZ, and a very interesting couple from Israel. We have met a good number of travelers from Israel here.
Upon returning to Te Anau, we viewed a movie entitled “Ata Whenau-Shadowland” which was shot almost entirely by helicopter and shows the viewer an entirely different, and hauntingly beautiful, aspect of the Fjordland area. The alpine lakes are seen from above, and the waterfalls are also seen from some unique angles. It was such an amazing piece of photography that I actually did buy the DVD, so in the future if anyone would like to see it, let me know!!
The following day was the first day of this trip where the weather was not great, but we took the scenic 2 hour drive from Te Anau to the head of Milford Sound. Although we did not take a boat trip in Milford, we could see a lot of it from the “town.” (I use that term extremely loosely!) We had a short walk on a boardwalk to the mudflats for viewing the sound, and as Randy approached a large bird on a log, the bird started cawing
in louder and louder alarm. He got quite close and took a photo before retreating. We later realized the bird was sitting on a nest!! Note to my medical friends; Milford Road is so far from any medical care that ANY accident gets flown out to Invercargill about 3 hours away. The helicopters are the “work horses” of this area. Local EMTs get to ride in the helicopters to transport patients to the hospital, nice perk!!
We next made our way to Arrowtown, an old mining town near Queenstown, and stayed the night there in a lovely hostel, Poplar Lodge .It is much quieter there than Queenstown. We even found an Italian restaurant for dinner!! For some reason, Italian restaurants are a rarity here.
On our last day, we woke up in the snow-wait!! Isn’t it supposed to be mid spring here? The previous day I even considered wearing a short sleeved T shirt!! Our plans to return home with a last night stop in Tekapo were foiled because the one road that led there was closed due to snow!! ”You can’t get there from here!” So instead we took the long way home, which routed
Doubtful Sound
First glance from the road above us through Cromwell, known for its fruit orchards and real fruit ice cream (yum) and ultimately through Omaru, always a welcome place as we can stop at the Whitestone cheese factory and stock up on their wonderful cheeses!! Altogether, it was quite an exhilarating trip. My suggestion to anyone traveling the South Island is NOT to go here first, because as beautiful as so much of the rest of NZ is, you will not appreciate it as much after seeing the Fjiordlands!!
One last note: Randy has more absolutely fantastic photos of this trip. Check his picture website at picasaweb.google.com/rhaxelrod
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Kevin Kolack
non-member comment
WOW
Water that looks like Six Flags and an 800 year-old tree! I gotta take that trip sometime! Have fun, Love, Kevin