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Published: October 20th 2007
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We arrived at Te Anua and booked our day trip to Doubtful Sound for the next day. Annoyingly it rained heavily all night (which equals zero sleep in a campervan!) and was really cloudy and misty across the lake. Great weather for a boat trip! We were picked up and driven to Manapouri for the start of our tour, where we jumped in a cosy, little boat for our journey across Lake Manapouri. Apparently this is one of New Zealand's most beautiful lakes, but we couldn't really appreciate it's beauty thanks to the cloud covering most of the mountains! We tried to pick out a rock tower that had been featured in the Lord of the Rings but we couldn't really identify it with the film.
Underground We visited the hydroelectric power station on Lake Manapouri and were driven down a dark 2km long tunnel blasted from the mountain side. We walked down a series of steps into the Generator Room, which Jase said looked like something out of a James Bond movie. Spookily, the information panel said the same thing, but Jase was adamant he thought of it first! Jase was far too interested in the power station (boring
Power station
Underground power station holiday video warning folks!) but Rach was grateful to be warm and dry for a bit.
Doubtful Sound Next we jumped on a 4x4 bus which took us over the mountains to Doubtful Sound. Our first glimpse of the Sound was quite eerie, as it was shrouded in mist. We were grateful for the 4 wheel drive because there were some seriously steep gradients on the road and we got our first smattering of snow! At the end of the road, we boarded a bigger boat to cruise the Sound. Now folks, the first thing the guides will always tell you is Doubtful Sound and Milford Sound are not really sounds, but fjords! Why? Because they were created by glaciers not rivers. Interesting fact of the day. Useful fact of the day, however, was that it rains over 200 days of the year in Fjordland and they get over 6m annual rainfall 0 and that's a helluva lot even compared to UK standards! Yet, this useful fact is conspiciously missing from all the brochures advertising the Sounds, with their stunning sunny photos.
Anyway, weather moaning over! The big advantage to all that rainfall was the sudden appearance of
hundreds of waterfalls all over the Sound. Water cascaded down the cliff faces in torrents! The boat cruised up to some of them, soaking us with the spray! The Sound looked very ominous cloaked in cloud, like a ghost ship was going to appear out of the gloom. After warming ourselves with copious cups of Milo, the cloud started to lift and reveal the mountain tops. Hurrah! The real beauty of the fjord began to reveal itself. We took a photo of Elizabeth Island for Ellie back home. Some of the passengers got a bit excited when we spotted a shag on the rocks - one silly lady thinking it was a penguin. Durrrr....In the end, we were very impressed by the stunning scenery of the Sound. So much so, we decided to visit the cute little cinema in Te Anau village which showcases a film created by a local helicoptor pilot, with lots of sweeping aerial views of Fjordland accompanied by the haunting music (no pan pipes thankfully!).
The next day we woke up to beautiful, sunny weather, such a contrast to yesterday! Perfect for a cruise around Milford Sound, especially as we had a 2-4-1 voucher. But
it was a huge no-no because they had blasted 400,000 tons of snow from an avalanche-waiting-to-happen, so the only road into Milford was covered in snow. Unfortunately, we didn't get told the full story from the start and were led to believe it was a natural avalanche due to all the wet weather and weren't aware of the volume of snow, or how long it would take to clear. We were assured it would probably open later that day or certainly the next morning. So we decided to drive half-way along the road to the barrier point and camp there, taking in the sights along the way.
We drove through gorgeous scenery alongside the Middle Fjord, the mountains free from cloud, their reflections shimmering in the waters. We walked up to Humboldt Falls, which were rather impressive and walked across a precarious swing bridge over a very fast flowing river at the start of Moraine Creek Tramp. We decided to overnight at Gunn Camp, which was a quaint old-fashioned campsite with cute log-side cabins and lots of old memorabilia. It was a bit like something out of Alice in Wonderland, with peculiar signs saying "this way, that way, other
way" etc. We walked to a huge tree called Hells Bells, that takes about 7 people to link their arms around its trunk. Unfortunately the camp had a river running through it, which equalled hundreds of flies descending to feast upon us. Citronella candles and insect repellent did nothing, so we decamped to a lookout point far above the river until dark. Here we enjoyed spectacular views to write our postcards and cook dinner, although we were interrupted by a cheeky kea running riot on the van, trying to nibble away at our rubber trim and window wipers. Rach had to keep chasing him off!
It persistenly rained all night, marvellous after such a sunny day! However, rainfall at our level meant the precipitation translated as snow higher up the road. Our plans to visit Milford in the morning were scuppered when we met a guy working on the road, with a van covered in snow from just the morning snowfall. Oh dear! However, the guy on the gate assured us the road should be open mid-afternoon, so we risked hanging around the village a few more hours. At 3pm we decided it was Game Over for Milford Sound
as we discovered the road was only open for essentials and to help move out all the poor tourists who had been marooned there for the last few days. The scary avalanche warning sirens that eeriely went off that afternoon certainly helped us make our decision to abandon Milford. Oh well, never mind!
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