Blogs from Fiordland National Park, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 23

The ferry accross from north to south island is meant to be one of the most sceinic crossings in the world and it did not dissapoint, it was freezing cold and the canteen was on a par with british rail but it was a nice way to spend 3 hours. We blasted over to the west coast and ended up in this little one horse town (we had already gone through a town claiming to be a 3 horse town, very strange). And here we finally decided to eat out and it was our best meal of NZ. roast beef glugged down with local beer, top dollar! We went on down the weat caost stopping in Te Anau and milford sound for 3 days before crossing over to the east coast and wending our way back ... read more

Staying at a little lake town called Te Anau we took a day trip to Milford Sound (which is really a fiord - they spell it different down here). It is about a two hour drive through some fantastic mountain scenery which was even better because there had been fresh snow in the night (it was 3 degrees that day!). We were not really sure what we would think of it as we have been to the Norwegian fjords which are stunning. Milford was also stunning but in a different way. It is a lot greener with green waters and lots of trees and ferns etc on the mountain sides. We were lucky to get a sunny-ish day with no rain. There had been fresh rain for days so there were loads of waterfalls. The boat ... read more

The weather today was fantastic - blue skies with a little cloud over the mountains; it was warm and sunny. :o) Apparantly 2 out of 3 days in Fiordland consist of rain anc cloud so we were lucky to get another fine day. We were desperate to do some hiking (as we've hardly been able to do any) so today was perfect - plus hiking is nice and cheap! We decided to do two 3hr walks... The first walk was to the top of Key Summit. The track was well made and very easy going; it started off in thick bush where we saw several Kea parrots along the way. The walk followed the mountain side and zig-zagged out of the bush into a lush alpine area upon the summit. Once on top, we saw panoramic ... read more

A big howzit from down south, completed my first trip as a guide for ultimate hikes friday evening after walking the Grand Traverse with 24 clients. All I can say is sweet and this summer is gunna be wicked! Peace Dan... read more

Driving down to Milford SOund we encountered some of the most amazing scenes of nature. Looking up at the mountains from Queenstown, they had these constant swirling, rolling clouds passing over and by them. The clouds seemed to float somewhere halfway between the earth and the sky. One cloud mass stretched half way across the landscape in an elongated triangle. Mind you we are in what the Mauri call Aoteapoa, or "Land of the Long White Cloud". As we came nearer Milford Sound from Te Anau, due to the heavy rain of the day we saw the waterfalls and flowing rivers in abundance. At one stage the road flows this gushing, heaving river which because of the downpour just seemed to be made of foam, nearly aqua blue in colour rather than the expected white, probably ... read more