Cool, windy and rain started as we headed off. Not promising. Stopped briefly at the Mirror Lakes. Too much wind and rain for the reflections. Passed through the 'avenue of the disappearing mountain' (yes it does), some more lakes, more rain, a hotel, camping grounds and high winding roads until we reached the Homer tunnel. (This was cut through finally in 1954 after starting 20 years earlier.) It's only 1.2Km long but a little hazardous: no lining, no lights and dripping wet. More like a coal mine. Very narrow. Fortunately no tour buses coming back at this hour.
When we reached the western side we stopped (like everyone else does) to take in the new vista. As we peered through the rain a local Kea parrot hopped (it only had one foot) onto the hood and pecked at the glass. As we didn't have any food to hand over, it proceeded to rip out a windscreen wiper blade. As I started up the wipers I realised how it probably lost a foot. (Later we learnt that there is normally a whole gang of Keas working over the tourists.)
Along the last stretch of winding road, snow still lay on the ground from last winter, and many thin waterfalls poured from the clouds about 300m (1000') above. These we were told later are 'politician falls' (only work sometimes).
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Finally reached the main hotel and info centre about midday. Found a front-row seat in the warm viewing room of the hotel. (We had sort of earned it by asking about room prices and facilities. $84 to $200 per night.) There is also a backpackers hotel back along the road near the airport. ($17per night/bed) As the rain began falling in sheets we headed off to the ferry terminal. (Our guide book tried to console us by pointing out that the average rainfall here is 7metres (277') and it mostly falls in summer.)
The terminal looks new and copes with up to 40 big tour buses. There were about 10 cruise ferries. The notorious sand flies were more or less absent, probably due to the rain. Their bite, it is reported, is much worse than mosquitos. We headed out on the standard 90-minute trip out to the ocean and back. Well we certainly saw the Sound at its most spectacular - during a fierce storm. A front had just crossed the coast with 60Kt gusts on the Sound. Hundreds of new waterfalls. Couldn't quite see the top the top of the 'mile high' Mitre Peak (5500') which rises sharply out of the water.
And yes, the tourist adverts are true, many of the waterfalls here do flow upwards (We also have photos to prove!). The wind simply blows many of the thinner waterfalls straight back up the cliffs and over the point where they started.
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Milford Road back to Te Anau Downs
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By now the streams were starting to flow across the road, dragging small rocks with them. The hundreds of waterfalls had now joined up into vast frothy sheets of water cascading down from the tops of all of the mountains lining the road for about 20 Kms. What a waterworks show. We never expected to see water falls like this.
We nearly didn't get back as at one point the road had washed away. Cars were stalled at either side. A 4WD tackled the gap and made it. So we followed with fingers crossed and just made it in low gear and foot down.
Stopped at the Chasm waterfall where a small foot bridge has been built across the top. An awesome sight and sound as the increased water was thundering just under the bridge. Washed-away trees were also going over the falls threatening to take out the bridge, so we didn't exactly linger.
More rain:
Rain continued for the rest of the trip back to the hotel. The next morning we learnt that the road was closed soon after we got through, for about 12 hours.
We also heard that 12' of rain had been dumped on the Sound area over the six hours that we were there. (Well, we did have some warning that it might be wet.)
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Milford Track (55Km/33m long. Takes about 5 days)
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The nearest we got to this was the ferry at Te Anau Downs where the walkers start their journey. The locals call them 'trampers', which sounds much more destructive than walkers/trekkers/hikers. (Maybe they chose the name appropriately.) Some friends of ours back home spent the 5 days on the track last year and described as the best thing they'd done outdoors on two legs. It's certainly popular. You may need to book up to a year ahead for the top of the tramping season. (The minimum is 3 months ahead for any time.) A permit alone costs about $65 plus ferry fare plus guide and better accommodation if you feel you need it. We met one of the seasonal guides (from Sydney) later at the Chch airport. There are several other tracks in this area: Routeburn (3 days), Hollyford and Kepler. Shorter tracks near the Homer tunnel. Many other tramping tracks in Fiordland such as Greenstone, Caples and Dusky.
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Started from this little town, south of Te Anau for the all-day adventure across lake Manapouri by a large catamaran to the underground power station, then on through a rain forest onto another ferry cruise on Doubtful Sound. ($94 pp). The weather had almost cleared up - cloudy with some light showers. Not too cold.
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Reaching the other side of the lake we then boarded two new Volvo buses (120 of us) for the trip down to the Manapouri Hydro Power station which was dug 213m (700') below ground. According to the guide, it took 3 million drill bits, 10 years and 15 lives to complete. (Also much political flak at the time when 250,000 NZers objected to the lake being raised 100'.) Access is via a downward spiralling road tunnel about 2Km long. Quite an impressive sight to see this huge cavern with 7 hydro generators capable of 100,000Kw each. (It doesn't actually reach this capacity because of turbulence problems in the water outflow tunnel.) The station workers don't need the bus; they use a lift.
After the hydro station we were held up for a while as road workers removed some trees from the top of a bridge (washed down the previous day). Then we pressed onwards through much lush subtropical rain forest and over the high Wilmot pass (fresh snow about), then down to Doubtful Sound.
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This piece of very deep calm water is about 20 times the size of Milford Sound, and for our money, it is much better. Though there are fewer permanent falls in the section we cruised (the Hall Arm), this day there were scores of very high (1000m (3300') 'politician' falls. The mountain sides are steeper (about 1500m/5000' high) and the vegetation much more varied. The whole place has an air of quiet mystery about it. Elsewhere on the sound is one of the world's highest waterfalls.
One curious natural phenomena are the tree avalanches. We could see a number of inverted wedges on the sides of the mountains where no trees grew. They are caused by a single tree falling at the top of the wedge and taking out everything growing below. It takes about 500 years to regrow completely. There is no top soil, just bare rock to start with, then lichen and mosses, followed by small plants etc.
The bus/ferry trip back to Manapouri uneventful. Met a couple from Sydney on their first overseas trip. They also had a hire car, and were generally going in the same direction around the south island. (Met them again at Christchurch.)
Filled up with petrol (104c/l here) and headed east for Gore (the halfway point to Dunedin).
Gore: (A name with a familiar ring to it.)
When we arrived at about 5 o'clock, the weather had become very windy and damn cold. (Seemed to be about 1degC with wind chill factor). Drove down the main windswept street (about 8 lanes wide) looking for a motel. Found only two on the edge of the town centre. Chose the Oakleigh. Nearly missed out. Got the last unit. Very spacious, 2 bedroom, heated, a view of a painted iron fence, at $65 per night. Two of the other units were taken by Motor Home (CamperVan) tourists because the high winds made driving dangerous. The next morning we spent a little time driving around Gore. Not a lot to see for view hungry tourists. Came across this gigantic fibreglass brown trout standing in the town's central gardens. It seems that Gore calls itself 'The World's Best Brown Trout Fishing Centre'
As big fish go, it wasn't a bad piece of work. On the way out we also spotted another billboard with 'Gore - the Country Music Centre of NZ'. So there.
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Mainly a get-there-as-fast-as-possible few hours. Continuing east. Passed through Clinton (an even more familier ring), more sheep, then the town of Balclutha. It didn't have a big fish but a dominating war memorial building and a large concrete bridge. Next town was Milton where we stopped at the Fireside Cafe for a coffee (The fire was going.) Browsed through a well stocked antique shop. Good prices on china and glassware. On the way out of Milton we realised that segregation was rife here: all the black sheep are held together in a paddock on the edge of town.
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| Arrived in Dunedin at midday. Looked for a motel among many. First one was too expensive. Tried the Dunedin Motor Inn: got the last unit at $80, watched as the 'No Vacancy' sign went up. It wasn't hype. Very good apartment, recently refurbished. Friendly proprietor put a Dunedin travel video on the in-house system for us. Planned staying two nights. |
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