With Cameron the driver in charge, we set off on our realjourneys coach for our Milford Sound adventure (NZD495 per adult travelling from Queenstown by coach to Milford Sound). Cameron proved to be exceedingly knowledgeable and entertaining (although I think some of his jokes went by some of the other foreign passengers on the bus!)
En route to our coffee stop at the Five Rivers Cafe, we drove alongside the Remarkables Range which has doubled as the Himalayas and the Canadian Rockies in several recent movies.
At the cafe we saw three shamels which are a cross of sheep with Australian camels!
We passed by the White Hills Wind Farm which prompted some NZ power stats from Cameron. The country is powered:
- 82% by hydroelectricity
- 12% by geothermal
- 6% by solar and a bit of thermal energy
At Mossburn, sheep were replaced in the paddocks by deer and, indeed, this area is known as the deep capital of New Zealand. The deer are a cross between Scottish red deer (for quick growth) and American Elk for size. Cameron also pointed out the gorse and broom bushes, both of which were imported for fencing purposes and have flourished to the point of becoming pests in the quick growing climate. They are now being eradicated to enable the native tussock and flax to re-establish. The gorse has to be starved out by planting trees around it, whilst a beetle has been imported from South America to eat the sap of the broom. Let's hope the beetle doesn't develop into a pest too (as did the imported possum and stoat).
We thought the countryside between Mossburn and Te Anau would have been great for orienteering.
Cameron told us more about those other pests. Rabbits went out of control after being imported for easy meat so the Government, against the wishes of the farming community, imported stoats to control the rabbits. Unfortunately, the stoats preferred to kill the native birds and pretty much ignored the rabbits. So now we could see stoat traps every 600m along this highway baited with chicken eggs, to catch and kill the stoats. The kiwi is particularly prone to be caught by stoats as it is a flightless bird which lives on the ground.
As we neared the majestic Fiordland Mountains we passed by forests of native Manuka trees. Bees draw nectar from their blossoms which in turn becomes Manuka honey, tea tree oil is another by product as is the use of woodchips from the tree to smoke meats, fish and cheese.
It looked to be raining over the Fiordlands which is not uncommon. Cameron told us if you can see the mountains through the rain it's called liquid sunshine, if you can't see them then it's called rain!
We had to drop some people doing the Doubtful Sound trip at the beautiful Lake Manipouri. It had been due to be raised a staggering 90 feet but faced protest from local people and the scheme was dropped.
Te Anau was lunch stop and we were recommended to try the venison pies at 'Miles Better Pies Cafe' but we should have shared one because they were packed full of meat and much too filling when seated on a coach for several hours - delicious though!
We paused at Knobs Flat for a photo call of the vast, flat plain out of which rose the mountains. I discovered I had lost my wallet, probably in the toilets at Te Anau, and we had already entered the no internet/mobile zone that is the Fiordlands. Thankfully, Cameron used the DOC phone to contact his company and they promised to do some detective work. It made for a very worrying couple of hours till we reached the Sound and were told by the realjourneyz team that the wallet had been handed in to the police station at Te Anau and would be available to collect on our return tomorrow. Phew!
Fiordland National Park is a World Heritage Park and a conservation area so, apart from the water activities at Milford, and trekking, no other activities take place and the forest is allowed to quietly, sometimes noisily (when there are snow, rock, tree avalanches) do its thing. It is exceedingly beautiful. There are palms, ferns, cabbage trees and three main types of beech tree - red, silver and mountain. Once we entered the forest and started our climb it was exactly what it was, travelling through a vast rainforest (with pouring rain!) with glimpses of crashing rivers and waterfalls and low cloud hugging the slopes of the ever increasing and growing mountains.
We passed Crystal Falls which ran under the road and then we stopped off at the Chasm which could be described as an enormous boulder polishing fall with amazing scourings and scoopings of rock and huge tree trunks caught up in the drop of water from top to bottom.
When we stopped to view the Chasm, we spotted a couple of Kea in the carpark which are a native parrot. They are very clever birds, particularly fond of the rubber around windscreens/windscreen wipers. They have also worked out how to get the chicken eggs out of the stoat traps without being killed. It is against the law to feed them.
On the final stretch, up and down twisty roads and tight bends, we had to queue to go through the single lane Homer Tunnel which is very long and quite scary (and reminded me of Indiana Jones racing through the mine in the coal truck!) We emerged into the Cleddau Valley on the other side, named unsurprisingly by a Welshman and resembling a Welsh quarry, at the top of an Alpine Road which twisted its way down between granite rockfaces and swirling cloud on three sides.
Eventually we arrived at Milford Sound Visitor Centre to be given our boarding passes for the Milford Wanderer (exciting!) and we quickly located our small but comfortable cabin onboard and went into the lounge for a safety briefing, whilst the Wanderer got underway. We were given a bowl of home-made soup, which was very welcome after several hours on the road, and set us up for the kayaking in the rain to come before dinner.
We were accompanied in to the Sound by the sister ship the Milford Mariner.
The Wanderer sailed up the Sound to anchor for the night in Harrison Cove and the mixed group of thirty passengers decided whether they would brave a trip in the tender with the nature expert or take a kayak out to explore the cove or stay warm and dry onboard. We decided on the kayaking which turned out to be great fun, if very wet. We also got in close to two rare blue ducks which were unperturbed by us paddling by.
After a hot shower and in to dry clothes we were served a hearty dinner of steak with vegetables, roast potatoes/pumpkin and kumara and several different types of salad followed by fruit crumble and ice cream. I treated myself to a glass of local pinot gris. Despite not being a very active day, we were shattered and went for an early night after taking photos of the many temporary waterfalls which had appeared due to the heavy rain.
We thought the countryside between Mossburn and Te Anau would have been great for orienteering.
Cameron told us more about those other pests. Rabbits went out of control after being imported for easy meat so the Government, against the wishes of the farming community, imported stoats to control the rabbits. Unfortunately, the stoats preferred to kill the native birds and pretty much ignored the rabbits. So now we could see stoat traps every 600m along this highway baited with chicken eggs, to catch and kill the stoats. The kiwi is particularly prone to be caught by stoats as it is a flightless bird which lives on the ground.
As we neared the majestic Fiordland Mountains we passed by forests of native Manuka trees. Bees draw nectar from their blossoms which in turn becomes Manuka honey, tea tree oil is another by product as is the use of woodchips from the tree to smoke meats, fish and cheese.
It looked to be raining over the Fiordlands which is not uncommon. Cameron told us if you can see the mountains through the rain it's called liquid sunshine, if you can't see them then it's called rain!
We had to drop some people doing the Doubtful Sound trip at the beautiful Lake Manipouri. It had been due to be raised a staggering 90 feet but faced protest from local people and the scheme was dropped.
Te Anau was lunch stop and we were recommended to try the venison pies at 'Miles Better Pies Cafe' but we should have shared one because they were packed full of meat and much too filling when seated on a coach for several hours - delicious though!
We paused at Knobs Flat for a photo call of the vast, flat plain out of which rose the mountains. I discovered I had lost my wallet, probably in the toilets at Te Anau, and we had already entered the no internet/mobile zone that is the Fiordlands. Thankfully, Cameron used the DOC phone to contact his company and they promised to do some detective work. It made for a very worrying couple of hours till we reached the Sound and were told by the realjourneyz team that the wallet had been handed in to the police station at Te Anau and would be available to collect on our return tomorrow. Phew!
Fiordland National Park is a World Heritage Park and a conservation area so, apart from the water activities at Milford, and trekking, no other activities take place and the forest is allowed to quietly, sometimes noisily (when there are snow, rock, tree avalanches) do its thing. It is exceedingly beautiful. There are palms, ferns, cabbage trees and three main types of beech tree - red, silver and mountain. Once we entered the forest and started our climb it was exactly what it was, travelling through a vast rainforest (with pouring rain!) with glimpses of crashing rivers and waterfalls and low cloud hugging the slopes of the ever increasing and growing mountains.
We passed Crystal Falls which ran under the road and then we stopped off at the Chasm which could be described as an enormous boulder polishing fall with amazing scourings and scoopings of rock and huge tree trunks caught up in the drop of water from top to bottom.
When we stopped to view the Chasm, we spotted a couple of Kea in the carpark which are a native parrot. They are very clever birds, particularly fond of the rubber around windscreens/windscreen wipers. They have also worked out how to get the chicken eggs out of the stoat traps without being killed. It is against the law to feed them.
Eventually we arrived at Milford Sound Visitor Centre to be given our boarding passes for the Milford Wanderer (exciting!) and we quickly located our small but comfortable cabin onboard and went into the lounge for a safety briefing, whilst the Wanderer got underway. We were given a bowl of home-made soup, which was very welcome after several hours on the road, and set us up for the kayaking in the rain to come before dinner.
We were accompanied in to the Sound by the sister ship the Milford Mariner.
The Wanderer sailed up the Sound to anchor for the night in Harrison Cove and the mixed group of thirty passengers decided whether they would brave a trip in the tender with the nature expert or take a kayak out to explore the cove or stay warm and dry onboard. We decided on the kayaking which turned out to be great fun, if very wet. We also got in close to two rare blue ducks which were unperturbed by us paddling by.
After a hot shower and in to dry clothes we were served a hearty dinner of steak with vegetables, roast potatoes/pumpkin and kumara and several different types of salad followed by fruit crumble and ice cream. I treated myself to a glass of local pinot gris. Despite not being a very active day, we were shattered and went for an early night after taking photos of the many temporary waterfalls which had appeared due to the heavy rain.
No comments:
Post a Comment