Blogs from Milford Sound, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 8

En quittant le plateau central, nous nous somme dirigés dans la région la plus au sud du pays, le Southland. Cette région, qui s’étend sur plus de 32'000 km2, est surtout connue pour son parc national, le plus grand du pays : le Fiordland National Park. Cette région est extrêmement sauvage et présente un paysage particulier, modelé par diverses périodes de glaciation et creusée par 14 fjords, falaises, cascades… L’intérieur du parc est quasiment impénétrable pour l’homme, la zone étant occupée par des énormes forêts denses. C’est une région bien sauvage, hostile, avec un climat rude, des précipitations quasi permanentes, de la neige en hiver et la maison principale de nos amies les sandflies ! Mais cette fois, on sera armés ! Tout cela aura quand même valu au parc d’être inscrit au patrimoine mondial de ... read more

On Tuesday the 15th we enjoy a day of cruising the sights of South Island NZ. While we are told there are 300 plus days of rain here to make this land so green, today we start with fog and clouds which gradually change to the most magnificent sunny, cloudless day we’ve seen. First we pass through Dusky Fjord where the glacier hewn mountain sides drop dramatically into the sea. No human signs are visible on the tree covered hillsides of Fjordland National Park. Completing that passage we next enter Doubtful Fjord, so named by Capt James Cook because he doubted they could get out of the passage without grounding. We prove him wrong with great scenery and move on to Milford Sound, the tourist magnet and jewel of the west coast, named after Milford Haven ... read more

Friday 10th December 2010 (Invercargill – Queenstown) Josh dropped us off for the Milford Explorer and we quickly took a group photo before being picked up by Ringo (Kevin Pieterson’s cousin “apparently”) on the big green bus. We stopped off for breakfast at “Pop Inn” Te Anau. Unfortunately the weather was rubbish with fog and low cloud making sightseeing virtually impossible! We kept hoping it would get better as we got closer to Milford Sound, but it got worse, and by the time we got there it was raining hard. Ringo tried to assure us this was good as it meant all of the waterfalls would be flowing, but it was hard to appreciate them when we couldn’t step outside the bus. The highlight of the day was a ferry around fiordland with a big buffet ... read more

Milford Sound trip. Probably the day I had been looking forward to more than any other, possibly apart from Challenge Wanaka day! I set an alarm to be sure to be awake, but was awake, as seems to be the case when we camp, nice and early. Up and showered before having some breakfast and heading to reception to get the mini coach at 8:20. I say mini coach, think maxi transit type thingy, 17 seats, and our guide, Bruce, was just hilarious as well as extremely knowledgeable about the local area. Turns out he’d worked on a sheep farm we passed en route for 20 years and so he knew what he was talking about. The drive out included several stops, the mirror lakes, which weren’t really living up to their names, 10 mile flats, ... read more

We headed for Lake Manapouri our next stop to explore the Fiordlands an area of outstanding natural beauty and one which we were really looking forward to see from the feedback we had received from Kerry & Cliff after their trip. What a surprise when we arrived at the campsite in Manapouri, which was the only powered site in this small lakeside town, so not a lot of choice if you want a ‘bit of luxury’ like toilets and showers! We were greeted by a lovely lady who must have been 100 plus, but seemed to be running the campsite by herself. She invited us into her ‘office’ which was also the shop, home for her collections of anything collectible which included a large display of old military uniforms from around the world. She said she ... read more