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Published: October 15th 2006
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Skydiving, jetboating, bungy… Queenstown has got it all. If you’re looking for adrenaline thrills, Queenstown is the place to be. We had been putting off signing up for anything until we got here and nervously browsed the information centres and booking offices lining the main street. In the end we confessed we didn’t really fancy any of it, had a nice fish supper and an early night.
The next day we stood and watched lunatics throwing themselves off the bridge at the original AJ Hackett bungy site and decided we had done the right thing. Plus, it’s really expensive to do any of this stuff. Cheaper than the UK and all set in beautiful countryside, but we felt the countryside was really what we had come to see, at a nice sedate pace thank you very much after all. Nothing against adrenaline thrills, but you can jump out of a plane anywhere if you really want to.
So we bid farewell to Queenstown, stopping at a few select wineries to taste some Central Otago pinot noirs before heading over to the Fiordland national park. We arrived in Manapouri just in time to book a day’s cruise in Doubtful Sound
the following day with Real Journeys. The trip involved a rid across Lake Manapouri, a visit to the power station, a short ride on a bus across a mountain pass linking the lake to the fiords and a good three hours on Doubtful Sound itself.
The day started under very low cloud. We couldn’t see the peaks lining the shores of the lake we sat chilled and gloomy in the first boat. The power station was no doubt an amazing feat of engineering, but there wasn’t much to see. Then we crossed the mountain pass and got our first view of Doubtful Sound emerging from the clouds into beautiful blue skies. It looked mysterious and strange and worth all the expense and effort to get there.
We joined forces with a couple of other bus loads and set off on a large cruising boat to tour the sound. It was a blustery trip, but we got some amazing views. At one point, the captain asked us all to be quiet and switch off phones and cameras, while he killed the engines and let us appreciate the peacefulness of the place. It was breathtaking.
All in all, the
day was an expensive and fairly luxurious trip. We would have been quite happy to put up with smaller boats and fewer creature comforts, and a lot less people, but we didn’t really get chance to shop around. Real Journeys have got Doubtful Sound pretty much sown up.
When we headed up to Milford Sound the following day, we looked for a smaller operator and enjoyed a more basic trip, away from the hoards of tourists that visit Milford simply because it is so much more accessible. We had the bow deck to ourselves and had much more fun. Milford Sound is smaller and a little less spectacular than Doubtful, but perfectly formed. I was quite disappointed we had no mist and rain to bring on the waterfalls and add to the sense of mystery. It didn’t look quite the same in blazing sunshine, but was stunning all the same. In the end though, Doubtful Sound stood out as the memorable trip and worth all the extra effort to get there.
The road between Te Anau, near Lake Manapouri, and Milford Sound is unbelievably scenic with amazing mountain views. We decided to camp along the route after visiting
Milford and stayed on the site of an old camp for road builders and their families from the 1930s. It was an eccentric place with no mains electricity, but some fantastic, newly installed wood fired hot water boilers for showers.
Still blessed with sunshine and clear skies, we set off the next morning on a trek through the woods, up to an isolated lake in the mountains. It was a pretty steep climb - more of a scramble than a hike - over rocks and along stream beds. It was worth all the effort. The mountain views and tranquillity of the lake were stunning. We heard, then saw an avalanche miles away over the other side of the lake, then peace returned. We just sat and soaked up the sun on the big rocks around the lake, before scrambling back down the track.
After all the fiords and lakes and woods and mountains, we headed for the coast again. Driving down the southern scenic route and heading for the Catlins, the scenery changed to pure green. We spent an anxious night free-camping by the sea. A little too close to the tide line for comfort, but the van
only got a little bit splashed. We spent a day driving halfway through the Catlins - a remote stretch of coast between Invercargill and Dunedin. We stopped at Curio Bay to marvel at the petrified forest along the shore and watched rare yellow-eyed penguins returning home from a day’s fishing to their nests. We didn’t see any of the also rare Hectors dolphins that live in nearby Porpoise Bay, but the sunset over the bay and relaxing walk along the sands was splendid.
We spent a few days in Dunedin, braving the fearsome wind on the Otago peninsula to see some more penguins, then headed up the east coast back towards Christchurch. We stopped off at the Moeraki boulders to see the weird ‘concretions’ that formed millions of years ago and are now lying on the beach, washed out of the cliff face and eroded by the sea. We also had a fantastic dinner at Fleur’s Place in Moeraki village, missing a visiting Rick Stein by a day apparently.
We met up with Graham’s friend Tim in Akaroa, a beautiful village on the Banks Peninsula outside Christchurch, with a very French influence. We spent a relaxing few days
Fairy Falls
Milford Sound camping with beautiful views over the bay and enjoying sublime French cuisine. A perfect mini holiday within a holiday and a lovely conclusion to our six weeks’ New Zealand adventure.
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