Blogs from Fiordland National Park, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 7

We ended our wonderful time in Queenstown and headed out for Milford Sound for an overnight cruise. The space in between was just breathtaking. I never knew there could be so many spectacular views, totally view of anything manmade as far as the eye can see. Sitting on the ground and closing my eyes I could hear the wind, birds singing, and leaves rustling, but no planes or cars - it was like sitting there a million years ago. We took lots of little 30 minute hikes to break up our 5 hour drive. My favorite was a walk around Mirror lake, so named because its location amidst mountains protects it from wind and it is as smooth as a mirror - of course it also captures mesmerizing reflections of the surrounding terrain. What an otherworldly ... read more

We survived the Milford Track! We woke up bright and early to catch our bus from Queenstown to Te Anau. It was pouring the whole ride their and the weather forcast posted at the Fiordland National Park visitor center predicted rain for the next several days. Yuck. We knew it rained a lot in this part of the country (the average annual rainfall in Milford is 276 inches), but it had actually been a pretty dry summer in this part of the country and we were hoping for at least 1 nice day out of the 4 that we were hiking. The trailhead is not accessible by road, so we had to take a boat across Lake Te Anau. By the time we got off the boat the rain had eased up a bit and we ... read more

The Kepler Track was our second track in Fiordland National Park. It was a two day tramp across a wet and windy alpine crossing over Mt Luxmore. It was a trip of memorable nature experiences; Our first night was interrupted by the sandflies at the Iris Burn camp, and during the second night we were chasing away a "cheeky" possum who kept trying to get into our packs. At the start of the track we saw a New Zealand falcon and at the Iris Burn camp I saw a Yellow-crowned parakeet. -sean... read more

Geo: -44.6698, 167.928Each day we hoped the weather would change, we had already had enough of the rain and we just wanted a little break in the weather, even for just a few hours and especially as we were headed straight up to MacKinnon Pass for some spectacular views. But alas we were not granted with such luck.The morning was cloudy with no rain, yet! We set off early again, we were the second group after a group of three old Japanese walkers, and we soon caught up to them just after the main ascent to the top. Rain had appeared here and there but the cloud still hovered low. We did manage a few views back down the valley which were quite amazing, but as we got to the top the cloud had completely covered ... read more

New Zealand – Wk 1 - Waitaki Camping Park heading South thereafter.....Monday 9th Jan. Another comfortable night was had under canvass and we awoke this morning to a fine sunny day. After a trip to the wash rooms, breakfast we were ready for a hike down the lane to the sea. It’s only a trip of approx 800 mts along a made up farm track passing hundreds of sheep and dairy cows happily grazing along the way. Currently in this area there is actually at the moment a severe drought warning and all the farmers are using sprinklers everywhere to green up the grass for grazing. These sprinklers range from a garden hose up to some enormous irrigation arms, 200+ mts in length. Anyone caught at their homes using excess water, they would be in deep ... read more