Tuesday, March 8th
Contrary to some of the advice we'd received, we booked ourselves on a Milford Sound cruise, rather than to the more remote and less touristy Doubtful Sound, and being in the closest significant town, we had a nice late start. We breakfasted at the Hollyford Cafe which is attached to a large tourist-friendly department store which is also used as a stop-off for quite a range of bus companies heading (mostly) to the Sounds.
Ours was the GoOrange company and, when it arrived it already had about 20 sleepy folks who'd boarded back in Queenstown.
Our driver gave a fun and interesting commentary and we had a few stops on the way to Milford. The first was the plains created some 12-15,000 years ago by the movement of the glaciers. Then we stopped at the extremely aptly named Mirror Lakes for a 5 minute walk along a boardwalk alongside there beautiful, calm lakes with the surrounding mountains reflected superbly.
A while later we had to stop at the Homer Tunnel, a hand-hewn tunnel through the mountain which helped to provide access to and from Milford from the rest of the country. Really steep (down-hill on the way there) and narrow, there are traffic lights to regulate access and a 7 minute drive through. When we arrived, we had a red light and a 4 minute wait signalled, so the nearby waterfall received some quick photography from several of our group.
We stopped again just after the tunnel to view the lovely scenery and, as we'd made good time to this point, were treated to an extra stop at the so-called Chasm. This was an amazing 15 minute round-trip to a water-carved chasm in the rock which held the river and created lovely waterfalls, as well as being surrounded by lush rainforest. Sometimes the area attracts Kea, the New Zealand native alpine parrots, but not today.
We arrived about 15 minutes later, ready for our 12.30 boat-trip on what is not actually a Sound, but a fjord.
Milford was missed twice, apparently by the rather inept explorer, judging by the stories we've heard, Captain Cook*. It was found a few years after Cook passed by, by Welsh sailors needing shelter from a severe storm, and they named it for Milford Haven. Our Go-Orange boat was named the same. Along with our boarding passes, we received complementary lunch tickets for 'fush and chups'.
*(He also missed the 'Bay of Islands' area, whilst sailing around the north-east of North Island)
We began the voyage on top of the boat for maximum views, but moved about and, with the relatively small number of people on board, were able to find good spots to view each of the attractions on the trip. We saw Mitre's Peak, the tallest peak round the fjord, though it's top was hidden in cloud, and then one of the 4 permanent waterfalls, Fairy Fall (the others, sometimes hundreds of them are weather dependent). One of the crew went out and collected water from the fall, and offered it to us all, alongside our lovely lunch. There was a beautiful rainbow intertwined in the waterfall too.
It was a lovely clear, sunny day, though windy out on deck, as we carried on up the Sound and headed towards the Tasman Sea. Turning back towards Milford, 4 seals basked obligingly on Seal Rock, and it became clearer to see how the Sound remained hidden from passing ships as the layers of rock seemed to conspire to look like solid cliffs. Back in the body of Sound, we passed a floating observatory where, I think, they said you can view the unique marine life found in the combined fresh and salt water found throughout the fjord.
Our final treat, other than the stunning scenery, was an up close and personnel visit to another of the permanent waterfalls, which Dave and I got liberally soaked with - what a lovely experience - Stirling Falls.
Bowen Falls, at the end of the trip, supplies all the drinking water for the boats that cruise the Sound, as well as the base/visitor centre, and is also used by kayak operators to brew small amounts of very unique beer.
The vegetation on almost all the rock faces, the cracks and chasms and waterfalls, as well as the colours left by the minerals washed over the rocks - what a stunning place and we were very lucky to see it in such glorious sunshine but so soon after a wet day that the water features were all at their rushing, spraying, glinting best. There was one glacier visible, but much diminished, apparently, with the previous month having been extremely hot, even by New Zealand standards. A truly grand two hours.
On the coach back, we stopped briefly at the Tutoko bridge over the Tutoko river with views of Mount Tutoko. All named for an important Maori chief. Good on him, I say.
Back in the coach and with no stops until Te Anau, we enjoyed going back (up) through the amazing Homer Tunnel and then snoozed.
We arrived, after ice creams, at the campsite and had an hour of domesticity, tidying the van and doing a load of laundry, as well as making a yummy batch of bolognese. After that, we felt we deserved a beer, and headed to a place in town where Dave gallantly paid for an older couple who didn't have enough money with them for snacks with their coffees. It started cooling down markedly, so we wandered back to the van (via possibly the tattiest souvenir shop I've ever seen).
Ours was the GoOrange company and, when it arrived it already had about 20 sleepy folks who'd boarded back in Queenstown.
Our driver gave a fun and interesting commentary and we had a few stops on the way to Milford. The first was the plains created some 12-15,000 years ago by the movement of the glaciers. Then we stopped at the extremely aptly named Mirror Lakes for a 5 minute walk along a boardwalk alongside there beautiful, calm lakes with the surrounding mountains reflected superbly.
A while later we had to stop at the Homer Tunnel, a hand-hewn tunnel through the mountain which helped to provide access to and from Milford from the rest of the country. Really steep (down-hill on the way there) and narrow, there are traffic lights to regulate access and a 7 minute drive through. When we arrived, we had a red light and a 4 minute wait signalled, so the nearby waterfall received some quick photography from several of our group.
We stopped again just after the tunnel to view the lovely scenery and, as we'd made good time to this point, were treated to an extra stop at the so-called Chasm. This was an amazing 15 minute round-trip to a water-carved chasm in the rock which held the river and created lovely waterfalls, as well as being surrounded by lush rainforest. Sometimes the area attracts Kea, the New Zealand native alpine parrots, but not today.
 |
| Through the tunnel, you emerge looking out at the road down the valley |
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| In the 'Chasm' the river drops out of the mountains, and then through a near vertical cut in the rock . |
We arrived about 15 minutes later, ready for our 12.30 boat-trip on what is not actually a Sound, but a fjord.
Milford was missed twice, apparently by the rather inept explorer, judging by the stories we've heard, Captain Cook*. It was found a few years after Cook passed by, by Welsh sailors needing shelter from a severe storm, and they named it for Milford Haven. Our Go-Orange boat was named the same. Along with our boarding passes, we received complementary lunch tickets for 'fush and chups'.
*(He also missed the 'Bay of Islands' area, whilst sailing around the north-east of North Island)
We began the voyage on top of the boat for maximum views, but moved about and, with the relatively small number of people on board, were able to find good spots to view each of the attractions on the trip. We saw Mitre's Peak, the tallest peak round the fjord, though it's top was hidden in cloud, and then one of the 4 permanent waterfalls, Fairy Fall (the others, sometimes hundreds of them are weather dependent). One of the crew went out and collected water from the fall, and offered it to us all, alongside our lovely lunch. There was a beautiful rainbow intertwined in the waterfall too.
 |
| Mitre Peak, and one of its permanent falls. |
 |
| Fairy Falls |
It was a lovely clear, sunny day, though windy out on deck, as we carried on up the Sound and headed towards the Tasman Sea. Turning back towards Milford, 4 seals basked obligingly on Seal Rock, and it became clearer to see how the Sound remained hidden from passing ships as the layers of rock seemed to conspire to look like solid cliffs. Back in the body of Sound, we passed a floating observatory where, I think, they said you can view the unique marine life found in the combined fresh and salt water found throughout the fjord.
Our final treat, other than the stunning scenery, was an up close and personnel visit to another of the permanent waterfalls, which Dave and I got liberally soaked with - what a lovely experience - Stirling Falls.
Bowen Falls, at the end of the trip, supplies all the drinking water for the boats that cruise the Sound, as well as the base/visitor centre, and is also used by kayak operators to brew small amounts of very unique beer.
 |
| Bowen Falls... |
 |
| ...with one of the other cruise boats, for scale. |
The vegetation on almost all the rock faces, the cracks and chasms and waterfalls, as well as the colours left by the minerals washed over the rocks - what a stunning place and we were very lucky to see it in such glorious sunshine but so soon after a wet day that the water features were all at their rushing, spraying, glinting best. There was one glacier visible, but much diminished, apparently, with the previous month having been extremely hot, even by New Zealand standards. A truly grand two hours.
On the coach back, we stopped briefly at the Tutoko bridge over the Tutoko river with views of Mount Tutoko. All named for an important Maori chief. Good on him, I say.
 |
| All things Tutoko... |
Back in the coach and with no stops until Te Anau, we enjoyed going back (up) through the amazing Homer Tunnel and then snoozed.
We arrived, after ice creams, at the campsite and had an hour of domesticity, tidying the van and doing a load of laundry, as well as making a yummy batch of bolognese. After that, we felt we deserved a beer, and headed to a place in town where Dave gallantly paid for an older couple who didn't have enough money with them for snacks with their coffees. It started cooling down markedly, so we wandered back to the van (via possibly the tattiest souvenir shop I've ever seen).
Wednesday March 9th
After our day on the water, today was an ornithological treat. From our Lonely Planet guidebook, we discovered that Te Anau has a bird sanctuary and decided to drop in on our way out of town.
We got there quite early and wandered round and saw some of the birds before the Ranger-in-charge appeared and began a guided feeding tour which started with being able to go into the Takahe enclosure while she fed them. There are two separated pairs, one pair retired and one mated pair, so they are in different fenced apart areas. They are amazing birds, large, bright blue with massive red beaks and, like many of New Zealand's native species, completely flightless. The talk about them was very informative and included being able to see and touch one of their (failed) eggs.
We also got to see the resident crested Grebe family and a lovely white-faced heron on the lake which bordered the sanctuary, as we moved round the grounds to the owl cage. The Ranger, Katherine, gave food to the lovely Morepork owl; although she flew out of the shelter into a tree briefly and didn't seem to mind the dozen or so people watching, she didn't attempt to eat her mouse or chick while we were there.
We then moved to the Kaka enclosure and Katherine filled up the feeders for the six birds, mum, dad and their four young, but they'd all been caught for some examinations by the vet about an hour earlier and were in no mood to to eat or play nice for the visitors. The four young birds were scheduled to be released soon, into a small wild Kaka colony in Abel Tasman national park (hence the necessary disease screening they had so objected to) where they will help maintain and increase the numbers of these gorgeous endangered parrots.
We then moved to the Kaka enclosure and Katherine filled up the feeders for the six birds, mum, dad and their four young, but they'd all been caught for some examinations by the vet about an hour earlier and were in no mood to to eat or play nice for the visitors. The four young birds were scheduled to be released soon, into a small wild Kaka colony in Abel Tasman national park (hence the necessary disease screening they had so objected to) where they will help maintain and increase the numbers of these gorgeous endangered parrots.
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| Dave feeding the lovely female Paradise Shelduck |
Other residents included an imprinted female Paradise Shelduck, mallards, a pair of Canada geese and lots of Tui, bellbirds and others small birds attracted by the many feeders. This was a lovely low key place, and well worth the visit which only required a donation towards an additional Kaka enclosure.
From there, the biggest news of the trip so far...
Only for about an hour, and until we needed diesel at which point Dave's dislike of being a passenger took over. But I did fine.
Our destination was Dunedin (which I couldn't resist pronouncing Dúnedain), stopping for lunch at a restaurant/retail stop just outside Balclutha on the way. We reached Dunedin, which is quite a big town, almost the size of Wellington I imagine, and drove the extra 30-odd kilometres out to the Otaga Peninsula to the Royal Albatross colony. Typically, you can only see them on a guided walk, but we'd arrived 2 minutes before one as due to start, so joined another 4 people. We got a chat and video about these wonderful birds and their lifestyle and then climbed up the cliff into the observatory (past the jails left over from the army's occupation of this strategically vital headland from 1885 until 1945).
I drove!
Only for about an hour, and until we needed diesel at which point Dave's dislike of being a passenger took over. But I did fine.
Our destination was Dunedin (which I couldn't resist pronouncing Dúnedain), stopping for lunch at a restaurant/retail stop just outside Balclutha on the way. We reached Dunedin, which is quite a big town, almost the size of Wellington I imagine, and drove the extra 30-odd kilometres out to the Otaga Peninsula to the Royal Albatross colony. Typically, you can only see them on a guided walk, but we'd arrived 2 minutes before one as due to start, so joined another 4 people. We got a chat and video about these wonderful birds and their lifestyle and then climbed up the cliff into the observatory (past the jails left over from the army's occupation of this strategically vital headland from 1885 until 1945).
We saw quite a few Royal Albatross, mostly older juveniles flying around and socialising with each other as they're too young to mate. There were three babies on their nests, big fluffy things which just sit their waiting for the parents to bring them food. They grow to 10-13 kg at about 5 months old before attempting to fly (and learn to fish and feed themselves), but once they've taken off, they don't touch land for 5 years, flying and only landing on the ocean during their circumnavigation of Antarctica. Photos were taken.
We drove further north, up the coast, to Oamaru where there are two famous penguin colonies, Little Blue and Yellow-eyed penguins. We arrived at the Top10 at almost 7pm and were informed that the Blue penguins are best seen after dark with the next viewing at 8.15. Apparently this year there are very very few of the Yellow-eyed penguins around, and they are most likely seen at sunrise.
We drove further north, up the coast, to Oamaru where there are two famous penguin colonies, Little Blue and Yellow-eyed penguins. We arrived at the Top10 at almost 7pm and were informed that the Blue penguins are best seen after dark with the next viewing at 8.15. Apparently this year there are very very few of the Yellow-eyed penguins around, and they are most likely seen at sunrise.
We went straight down to the Blue Penguin colony visitor centre with our tickets bought at Top10 and parked on the next street down (on the advice of the lady from our holiday park reception). We walked down and waited to be allowed into the stand; we'd tried to in vain to find a chippie on the way there but only stumbled across the Steam Punk museum which we immediately added to the list of places to visit tomorrow.
To get to the viewing area (there are two, the one for premium ticket holder is closer to where the penguins come shore, but we were in the other one), you go along a walkway through ground covered in dozens of man-made nesting boxes in lovely surroundings.
We waited for 30-40 minutes with the commentator telling us about the birds and the history of the colony.
The birds 'raft' in after being at sea feeding all day (since before sun-up), by joining together in groups of 10 or more and landing with the waves. They can be heard on the water as they approach; they cross the small beach and start waddling and jumping up a concreted pathway towards wooden boards which funnel them into the nest box area. They coo and click and are the cutest little things - they are quite blue with white bellies, barely 30 cm tall, there are some tubby ones, some sleek ones but all titchy and cute and lovely.
The first 'raft' had about 70 birds and the second, about 20 minutes later had another 52 (they monitor them quite closely - we didn't count ourselves!). Not all ran straight up the slope, some stayed on the beach (out of our line of sight), and some on the lower edge of the slope, probably preening their wet feathers, cooling down after their exertions or waiting for their mates.
It was a lovely magical experience to be able to watch them; fully wild birds doing what they do naturally (albeit in a somewhat controlled environment where we couldn't get in the way or scare/harm them). We stayed until the third raft had arrived and then headed back towards the van (having purchased the obligatory keyring) as it was completely dark and getting cold.
There were a bunch of penguins trying to cross the road outside the Visitor Centre - clearly a regular occurrence as there were staff there to direct pedestrians and cars when to stop or pass. We could take photos of these, as they aren't part of the protected colony, so Dave did. We walked further towards the van and saw two more by a fence, and close to the van there were another two, three quarters of the way up a steep rockface from the marina. A few more photos were taken in the light of the streetlamp - we think they were sodium like the ones in the colony, a colour the penguins can't see well, so think of it as darkness.
Such a lovely day.
To get to the viewing area (there are two, the one for premium ticket holder is closer to where the penguins come shore, but we were in the other one), you go along a walkway through ground covered in dozens of man-made nesting boxes in lovely surroundings.
We waited for 30-40 minutes with the commentator telling us about the birds and the history of the colony.
The birds 'raft' in after being at sea feeding all day (since before sun-up), by joining together in groups of 10 or more and landing with the waves. They can be heard on the water as they approach; they cross the small beach and start waddling and jumping up a concreted pathway towards wooden boards which funnel them into the nest box area. They coo and click and are the cutest little things - they are quite blue with white bellies, barely 30 cm tall, there are some tubby ones, some sleek ones but all titchy and cute and lovely.
The first 'raft' had about 70 birds and the second, about 20 minutes later had another 52 (they monitor them quite closely - we didn't count ourselves!). Not all ran straight up the slope, some stayed on the beach (out of our line of sight), and some on the lower edge of the slope, probably preening their wet feathers, cooling down after their exertions or waiting for their mates.
It was a lovely magical experience to be able to watch them; fully wild birds doing what they do naturally (albeit in a somewhat controlled environment where we couldn't get in the way or scare/harm them). We stayed until the third raft had arrived and then headed back towards the van (having purchased the obligatory keyring) as it was completely dark and getting cold.
There were a bunch of penguins trying to cross the road outside the Visitor Centre - clearly a regular occurrence as there were staff there to direct pedestrians and cars when to stop or pass. We could take photos of these, as they aren't part of the protected colony, so Dave did. We walked further towards the van and saw two more by a fence, and close to the van there were another two, three quarters of the way up a steep rockface from the marina. A few more photos were taken in the light of the streetlamp - we think they were sodium like the ones in the colony, a colour the penguins can't see well, so think of it as darkness.
Such a lovely day.
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