Headed out this morning, planning to drive straight across the island to Dunedin.  However it looked to be a shorter drive than we thought so we decided to head south and drive the long way around the coast.  On my map, there was a clearly marked “Scenic Highway” which ran along the coast, east from Invercargill.

First sign of trouble was there was no way we could find that highway in Invercargill.  Plus the GPS didn’t recognize any of the towns along that highway.  But we forged ahead anyway.

Second sign of trouble was when the road turned into gravel.  Third sign of trouble was a low gas tank reading.

As it turned out, I was looking at an old map and that particular scenic highway appears to have turned into the Catlin Heritage Highway, which has been very neglected over the past years.  So we hobbled along those Heritage back roads, mostly gravel, until the GPS took us back to civilization, and thankfully did so before our gas ran out.

The upside was we saw some stunning scenery along the way – the ocean on the right, and absolutely gorgeous rolling green hills on the left, always dotted with lots of sheep.  The sheep do nothing but eat so they don’t move at all and really look like permanent white dots against the green fields.

Finally, after only a “couple” of arguments, we made it back to the actual current scenic highway and continued on to Dunedin where our “ocean side” hotel was truly ocean side.  We had a great dinner looking out over the waves and then a good long walk along the beach at sunset.  So yes, a beautiful destination it turned out to be!

Tomorrow we’re off to Christchurch for our last stop in New Zealand.  The time has gone way too quickly.

  New Zealand sheep with mountains in the background.

  View from the ocean side restaurant in our ocean side hotel.

  Sometimes we do eat like adults!  New Zealand lamb, hopefully not related to the ones in the picture above!

The weather forecast was not good for today but we still wanted to see Milford Sound and Peter was very anxious to do a little of the famous Milford Track hike (tramp.)

It is a long drive and when we left Te Anau, the sky was still a light grey.  By the time we reached the Sound, it was definitely a darker grey and the rain was beginning.

I confess I wimped out on the “hiking in the rain” agenda and sweet-talked Peter into taking a Milford Sound boat cruise (yes, another one.)  It ended up being a good call because shortly after the boat departed, the rain started in earnest.  Fortunately the outdoor area on the boat was covered by a roof so it didn’t matter all that much (there were two lovely indoor lounges but sitting inside makes me very seasick, so I’m definitely an outside rider!)

Milford is very different to Doubtful.  For one thing, there’s a hopping tourist business at the entrance to the Sound.  There is a tour boat terminal with about 6 docks and parking for up to 60 tour buses! And yes, there was always at least one other boat visible out on the water.

And once you get out into the sound, it’s also very different to Doubtful.  The Milford channel curves around and about so the views are more contained than the long views down Doubtful.  With Milford, it is hard to see beyond the very steep granite cliffs that rise so high immediately at the water’s edge.  So there are not the deep views inland over varying mountain ranges that we saw with Doubtful.

Despite all that, Milford Sound is more dramatic.  It’s hard to understand why, but certainly the sides of the Sound are much closer together, much higher and very much steeper than Doubtful.  So you feel more like the landscape is on top of you, that you can actually reach out and touch it.  And the significantly misty weather today also added its own drama to the scene!

Due to its narrow curving structure, Milford Sound is much less visible from the Tasman Sea than Doubtful.  In fact, when our friend Captain James Cook sailed by, he didn’t even notice it went inland.  He thought it was simply a sandy beach along the shoreline, and noted his map accordingly.  No-one was ever the wiser until almost 50 years later when another explorer went by and was accidentally blown inland and discovered the Sound!  He named it after the town in England near his home.

It rained constantly through most of our Tour but there was an upside to that.  During a rainfall, and apparently only when it’s actually raining, the sides of the cliffs are covered with long, thin, incredibly picturesque waterfalls.  Today we saw many of them.  (The other upside is that we weren’t out hiking and soaked to the skin!)

Peter was able to give me 3 of his Milford pictures for this post.  Enjoy!

  Mitre Peak which overlooks the entrance to Milford Sound.

  Milford Sound  Drama

  A rainy day waterfall in Milford Sound.

Today we did an organized tour of Doubtful Sound – there is no public access so the Real Adventures Tour Company is the only way to see it.

The name Doubtful Sound came from Captain James Cook who was the first European to see the area in the mid-1700s.  He sailed his ship into the Sound and all his sailors wanted to keep going farther in to spend some time on land.  Capt Cook was concerned (quite correctly) that the prevailing winds would prevent them from sailing back out so he refused to land and turned the ship back into the Tasman Sea.  On the maps he was compiling at the time, he made a note “doubtful harbour” reflecting his feelings about landing there, and somehow that was interpreted as the name of the place, not his comment on landability!  The name has stuck ever since.

We decided on Doubtful Sound over Milford Sound, which is the more famous and more trafficked, because Milford is a 2-hour drive one-way from here, plus we were worried there would be tour boats all over the place while we were on the water.  Tomorrow we will drive there to do some hiking and hope that our decision was a wise one.

Doubtful is the largest of the two Sounds but attracts less traffic.  Probably because it is a complicated exercise getting there – we drove 20 km, then boated across Lake Manapouri for 45 minutes, then had to take a bus for another hour to the beginning of the Sound.  Then we finally boarded the Tour Boat which took us out into the Sound for 3 hours.

It was definitely worth the effort.  The scenery is magnificent and the tour guide spoke calmly and clearly at appropriate times.  We learned some interesting facts and, best of all, once it got windy up on the front deck, everyone disappeared inside and we had the view to ourselves. We saw a group of bottlenose dolphins playing in the water near the boat, and we saw a herd of the local seals lying around on a rocky outcrop.

The Sound is about 30 km long with steep cliffs up each side, all covered with dense vegetation which is literally hanging on by its roots, since there is no topsoil.  Every once in a while the weight of all the vegetation gets too heavy and huge pieces of the cliff break away and avalanche down, leaving bare slopes until the next generation of vegetation sets in.  It is completely uninhabited and we saw only one sailboat while we were out.

The views are typically very long through the Sound so you have this wonderful open tunnel feeling – steep cliffs on each side, but of course no ceiling!

Peter took over 300 pictures which he hasn’t finished sorting so I’m attaching a couple of mine…I also took over 200 but I was able to easily weed out many of them!  Peter should have some gorgeous shot when he’s done.

Starting out when the sky was still quite blue, looking back into land.

Some of the bare areas caused by “vegetation avalanche.”

Another view.

And another…

And a final foggy view, as the clouds moved in to stay.

These are silver beech trees in the middle of the shot.  As they age, they lose all their leaves but the trunks and broken branches continue to point out in all weird directions. These are the trees that inspired Peter Jackson’s creation of the “Ents” in Lord of the Rings – basically trees with arms and legs.  We saw numerous better examples on the bus ride but I couldn’t snap them quickly enough.

Spent most of the day driving south to Te Anau, at the edge of the Fjordlands National Park.  We were both a bit cranky, probably a reaction to yesterday’s exertions!

Pretty scenery along the way, lots of mountains in the distance behind rolling hills and farmland.  Some of the mountains were even snow-topped.

That’s it for today. Looking forward to tomorrow when we take a boat cruise to Doubtful Sound!

 Mount Sefton Sunrise, from our motel room (by Peter)

 Mount Sefton Sunset, from our motel room (by Peter)

The day dawned sunny and promising superior views.

Mount Cook National Park has several +10,000ft peaks and lots of glaciers, but it has surprisingly few marked trails.  This is apparently because the glaciers are receding very quickly and create ongoing avalanches and scree deposits.  Many of the trails the Park used to maintain have been completely obliterated over the last 10 years.  There is really only one trail that climbs to height.

And on a day like today, you want to be climbing to height for the views.

Only problem is, that particular trail starts with 2200 stairs – which you might recall from my post 2 days ago.

So…call us crazy but we decided to do it again, and then climb an additional 3,500 ft up to Mueller’s Hut which reputedly has spectacular views on a clear day.

You may recall how much I hated those 2200 steps so this time I just wanted to get them over with and we hurtled up in less than an hour. But we weren’t expecting such a challenging subsequent climb – scrambling steeply up through small rough scree, and hauling our way over large rocks that had clearly avalanched down at some point in the past.  It was a tough climb but SO worth it.

The views were, in fact, spectacular.  See a small sample in the photos below.  We could see several glaciers from above and it was interesting to see exactly where they started and how they begin to break apart as they get closer to the bottom.  Also we could see a variety of snow-covered peaks from what felt like eye-level, and Mount Cook itself was absolutely glowing all day.

This was one of our top 10 days ever. 

A little side-story… as we approached the mountaineering hut at the top, we started to hear Rufus Wainwright (too bad it wasn’t Jeff Buckley!) singing Hallelujah. I thought to myself, how could they possibly have put speakers into a hut up there in all that alpine magnificence?! A minute or so later, I realized it was my own iPhone which had suddenly gone into musical mode all by itself and, when I tried to turn it off, had a frozen screen!  I happen to like that song so I have about 15 versions and they were starting to cycle through (much to my embarrassment!) until finally I realized I could use the side buttons to turn down the sound.

Peter thought it was due to the altitude.  I think it was because I had it in my front pants pocket and it just got fed up banging against my thigh every step I took!

When we got back, I did some googling and found the “hard reset” solution and … bob’s your uncle.  Back in business.

But now whenever I hear Rufus, I will think of that long climb up to Mueller Hut and how he prevented me photographing our arrival!

Peter however thinks the selection of Hallelujah (out of the 769 songs on my iPhone) just as we arrived at the high point was quite magical.

About 1/2 way up (apologies for the poor quality)

Look closely and you’ll see Peter perched on the edge of a crazy cliff!!

 Just as Rufus started! The hut is just over the rocky crest behind me. (Photo by Peter, obviously I guess!)

So here’s my first attempt at a Foodie entry, remembering that 1) we shopped for groceries 2 days ago without photography in mind, and 2) we are staying in a motel/apartment with a full kitchen so eating in (and staying away from the Lodge restaurant where dinner costs north of $200!)

   BREAKFAST

  HIKING LUNCH

 HAPPY HOUR ON OUR PATIO (yes, Peter drinks wine on vacation!)

  DINNER.  Pretty bland looking but I accidentally used up the tomatoes yesterday! Peter wants me to mention that it’s Pomegranate Jelly, not Cranberry!

Peter set out to do some solo photography this morning, he wanted to take advantage of the cloudy morning weather. Which made for a restful morning for me – the highlight being a FaceTime call with Julie who’s in Hawaii right now so in the same time zone. So weird to be talking to each other from halfway around the world.  They were clearly having better weather there since Julie’s iPad overheated in the sun and cut our connection!

Peter arrived home just before lunchtime along with the sun and emerging views of the mountains (not to mention seriously increasing temperatures.)  So we set out on the Hookers Tramp again and this time made it to Hooker Glacier/Lake.  It was a completely different experience with views all round as opposed to that very low cloud cover of yesterday and we were both glad we repeated it.

Funny anecdote about Sue and Peter hiking together.  We’re walking along, Peter behind me on the trail.  Suddenly he lets out a very surprised yelp and I stop abruptly to see what’s up.  I am imagining a dead body (human) just off the trail, or two people having either a big fight or making love, or someone floating down the river…something radical along those lines.  Imagine the denouement when it turns out the yelp was for a mushroom that he found beside the trail which really made his day. (I do believe there are only 2 people in our lives who would have been just as thrilled as Peter – my Dad and friend Thom. He was probably wishing he was hiking with them right then!)

  The sky clearing along the way to Hooker Glacier.

 Hooker Lake with the glacier in the background but it’s so covered with black dirt you can’t really see it – just a few spots at the edge of the lake where it calved recently and the ice has not yet been covered with dirt.  Best of all, Mount Cook came out for a brief visit (top of photo) before disappearing again behind the clouds.

(No, David, not what you’re imagining.)

I’m reverting to NZ/OZ terminology – never call it a “hike” or a “trail”, always a “tramp.”

As predicted, the weather today was influenced by Cyclone Pam who passed close to the northern part of the North Island.  Even though we’re midway down the South Island, there was still some fallout here today.

Since the weather wasn’t going to be so good, we decided to do a morning hike just to get some exercise.  We picked the 3-hour “Sealys Tarns Tramp” – the description said some uphills and climbing but we figured after 2 days in the car, it would be good for us.  Well, it turned out to be straight uphill, all the way.  Even worse, they’d built steps for 90% of it, so we climbed up 2200 steps (yes, someone has counted them, which we found out AFTER we got back!) It was absolutely exhausting.  I spent the trip up thinking of Blog headlines, and wondering how many swearwords could be incorporated.

Of course once we got to the top, all was forgotten.  Bummed that we had no view but we knew that starting out.  The way down was SO much easier and we started getting some views halfway down.  At the bottom, we felt like new people and headed back to the motel for lunch.

After some refueling, we decided to head out again on what promised to be a flat hike – Hooker Valley Tramp, across to Hooker Glacier Lake.  3 hours round trip.  We were both feeling the morning though and, I confess with shame, we turned around after about an hour, so never made it to the lake.  Not sure how much we would have seen anyway since by the end of the afternoon, the cloud cover was very low.  And now we’re back in our room in the middle of a very windy rainstorm (thanks, Pam!) so good idea to turn around after all!

My English blood came to the rescue today. Even though it was grey, cool, misty, I like the atmosphere of that kind of weather.  Peter finds it “depressing” – and that from a Dutchman!

  

Friend Roger has called me out on the lack of information about the food we’ve been enjoying.  And yes, we have been eating!

But, unfortunately, Peter and I are not in the same league as Anthony Bourdain. In fact, neither of us could even be considered a wannabe “foodie”!   So stay tuned as we work up some comments on what we’ve experienced so far!