Our next stop was Te Anau, the gateway to Fiordland National Park. I had all along been assuming that we would visit the west coast fyords via the west coast. However, unbeknownst to me, there really are no roads that follow the southwest coast, due to the ruggedness and fyords cutting in from the Tasman Sea. To get to the “Sounds” (Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound, among others), we needed to drive north and inland. There are two large inland lakes here that had been carved out by the glaciers, Lake Te Anau (the largest lake in NZ) and Lake Manapouri, the second deepest lake in NZ. They are both incredibly deep, up to 1400 ft. deep in places, very large and very beautiful, with very little boating activity.

Lake Manapouri as we drove into Te Anau.

We stayed in Te Anau for two nights. Te Anau is a tourist town, basically motels and restaurants, with a few other stores thrown in, on the shores of a beautiful lake. We decided to drive up to Milford Sound on our first day and see what it was all about. I had thought that Milford Sound had a town of that name. But actually, once you leave Te Anau, that’s it. Two and a half hours of driving, much of it through the park, with no gas, no stores, no nothing until you arrive at the inland end of the sound (actually, technically a fyord as these “sounds” were carved out by glaciers). The drive was the main draw. After about 45 minutes of following the shores of Lake Te Anau, we started up a twisty, turny, narrow 2 lane road, which on occasion morphed into a one lane road, with some one lane bridges thrown in for good measure. As you drove up to the tunnel, the mountains became steeper and steeper, until they were sheer rock walls of gneiss. They were almost vertical. It started to rain and there were many temporary waterfalls streaming from the tops of the mountains. It was quite spectacular.

It was a very rainy, misty day.  Which it is most of the time.  They get some 18 feet of rain a year in the Fiordlands.

Water falls everywhere.

Since the mountains are a form of granite when it rains waterfalls appear everywhere.  There is no vegetation to hold the water back.  It is really quite spectacular.

There was a large parking area just by the Homer Tunnel so we stopped to have our lunch.  You can see a little bit of snow at the bottom of this waterfall.  In one of the guide books they talk about that being a rather large snow pack that at the right time of year you can walk into the tunnel carved by the waterfall and resulting river.  I was looking forward to that but alas, it was the wrong time of year.

We got to the Homer Tunnel and I felt like I was seeing the 1940’s version of the Eisenhower Tunnel. It was at the top of the pass and was 1½ lanes wide, with uneven, bumpy, random pavement and raw rock walls. There was a stoplight that let one direction of traffic through at a time, but this light doesn’t operate from 8 pm to 6 am, so I imagine it’s quite a free for all at night, trying to get through that tunnel! Then, down, down, down, more hairpin turns, until you came to Milford Sound. There we found the wharves for the tourist cruise boats and a café and souvenir shop. The Sound looked lovely, with steep walls and cascading waterfalls, but with boatloads (literally and figuratively) of tourists. Apparently one day that week, over 5,000 people went out on the day and overnight cruise boats to see Milford Sound. We walked a bit on the shore and then headed back to town. We spent the night in an adequate but dreary motel, and then got up the next morning to head out to Doubtful Sound.

The Homer Tunnel.

Barb at the Milford Sound DOC office and cafe.  This is the end of the line for the Milford Sound road.  You have no place to go but back the way you came or get on a ferry and head out into the sound.

Standing out on the rocks at low tide.  You can see a ferry heading out into the sound.

This place was magical.  We are still at the end of the Milford Sound road and I’m looking out into the sound.

We had decided to splurge on an overnight cruise through Doubtful Sound, a much larger fyord than Milford and with about 8% of the people cruising through it. To get to our boat, we took a tourist cruise boat across Lake Manapouri in a drizzling rain. This was a lovely one hour trip that took us to the West Arm power station.

The surrounding mountains from the ferry while crossing Lake Manapouri on our way to Doubtful Sound.

Back in the 60’s (I think) they decided to build a big hydroelectric plant on the lake and had proposed raising the shoreline 30 feet. This created a huge uproar in NZ and is credited with creating the first surge in environmentalism in the country. The proposal went through but with significant restrictions, including not raising the water level from its current level. This power station feeds only one aluminum smelter in Bluff but provides enough power to power the entire needs of the South Island, were it not directed at the smelting operation.

So the next leg of our trip involved a 14 mile dirt road going over Wilmot Pass to Deep Cove at the inland end of Doubtful Sound. This road was built to get all of the equipment up to the power plant and was the most expensive stretch of road ever built in NZ. It was another narrow, twisty, turny road going over a pass, but this time gravel. As we traveled by van over the pass, Sean explained that due to the steep, hard, gneiss mountain walls, there was no soil on the rock faces. But because Doubtful Sounds gets about 17 feet of rainfall each year (one year saw 52 feet of rain), lichen and moss are able to grow on the rock walls. These mats of moss and lichen are up to 15 feet deep in places. This allows shrubs and trees (we saw some about 30 feet high) to grow on vertical rock walls, and so the cliffs on the Sound are often covered in vegetation. Apparently, in very dry or very wet years, the moss lets go and the trees and shrubs lose their base and they have tree avalanches.

Our first view of Doubtful Sound as we crossed Wilmot Pass.  That is Deep Cove where we met our boat.

Upon arriving at Doubtful Sound, we boarded our cruise boat with 4 other guests, Singaporeans currently living in Australia, and Nigel, our skipper, and Sean, our do-everything-else person. It was a boat built for up to 11 guests, so there was room to spare. We motored slowly out toward the Tasman Sea and were totally awed by the Sound. It was truly gorgeous. We spent much of the afternoon at the mouth of the fyord, watching fur seals, and fishing for dinner. The guests were supplied with rods and the blue cod and sea perch seemed to jump on everyone’s hook but mine, and this provided enough catch to provide us with our main course for the evening. Sean, man of all trades, donned his scuba gear and catch bag and dived down to catch (by hand) 6 very large lobsters for our first course.

The Mv Tutoko II, our ride.

Sean our cook and all around do everything guy and Nigel our captain.

Our shipmates, Peter, Leigh, Peggy, and Louis.  They were great shipmates.

We were served a hot lunch when we got on board and started our long ride out the the Tasman.

Motoring out into the sound heading for the Tasman Sea.

This video gives a good idea of what it was like motoring along in the fyord.  It was absolutely amazing.

Sean getting ready to catch part of our dinner.

And his catch.  Six rock lobsters and two large sea urchins.

Some of the natives resting on the rocks right at the opening to the Tasman sea.

We spotted another molting Fiordland crested penguin.

That’s the Tasman sea beyond that island.  Next stop, Australia.

We then motored back down the Sound to a bay, where the six of us went out to explore in kayaks. Spencer and I saw two loud oyster-catcher birds and their chick, and the parents were none too happy with us being there. When we were told to group together in our kayaks for a group photo, one of our group went into the drink. He managed to retain his glasses and his humor, while Nigel headed out with the tender to unceremoniously haul him out of the water. Once back on board, Spencer wowed us all with some diving off the helipad on the upper deck. At this point, it was time for Sean to cook us a wonderful dinner of very fresh lobster and fish, following by sticky pudding and caramel sauce. We then headed to bed in our private but very stuffy room.

A video of us all paddling around a little bay.  You can see the helipad on the back of the boat from which I did my diving.  Probably 20 feet.

Whenever I stand above water I want to dive into it.

Our little stuffy berth.

The next morning, Nigel started up the boat at 6 a.m. but we didn’t have to re-appear until 7:30 a.m. breakfast. We then spent the next couple of hours motoring around the Sound. At one point, I spotted some dolphins near shore. The Sound has dolphin-protection areas, so we were not allowed to approach them. But Nigel turned the boat around and we paralleled them at quite a distance for a while, and the dolphins decided they wanted to join us to ride our bow wave. About 8 large bottlenose dolphins appeared at our bow, and I mean about 6 inches from the sides of the boat, and swam with us for about 10-15 minutes. They were big – about 9 feet long. One was so large that the skipper suggested it was a pregnant female. So we’re all hanging over the bow, looking down on these dolphins about 5 feet away, and they were often swimming on their sides, appearing to be staring up at us with the same amount of curiosity that we had for them. It was truly amazing. A very David Attenborough moment (although we’ve had MANY of those in this trip). Finally they veered off and we went off to explore another cove. At one point, the skipper turned off the boat engines and we spent about 5 minutes in total quiet, looking at the most amazing scenery. But it had to end and off we went back to Deep Cove and the van. When we made it back to the power station and waited for our boat back, it began to pour. The people coming off the boat to begin their overnight excursions did not look too happy! After getting back to shore and a hot lunch, we were off to our next location, Mavora Lakes.

Our neighbor there is the larger tour company.  They spent the night in the same bay.

The morning was cool, foggy and cloudy.  Surprise, surprise.  🙂

This was a VERY big dolphin.   Nigel said it was probably a pregnant female.

 

“So if you want to look at me then I get to look at you too.”  🙂  I really got the feeling that they were looking back up at us.   As Barb said a real David Attenborough moment.