Exploring Fiordland by Sea and by Car

So we’ve spent the last two days living aboard the Fiordland Navigator while we explored Doubtful Sound.

It started with an hour cruise across Lake Manipouri, followed by a 45 minute bus ride across Wilmot Pass. Both were scenic enough to keep us interested…although Greg fell asleep on the bus.

Finally, we arrived at the cruise ship and we were off. We were shown to our room and settled in. Back on deck, we were immediately amazed by the steep canyon walls, numerous waterfalls, and the podocarp forest that our nature guide mentioned about 50 million times. Although the walls of the fiords are solid granite, they’re completely covered with plants and their roots can’t penetrate the granite. The roots spread out and grip the rock. Podocarp forest – got it? There are also big “scars” where trees have literally lost their grip and fallen off of the walls. This causes a land slide and basically takes out a bunch of plants under the initial tree.

One of the things we quickly learned about a cruise is that you just get fed until you are fat and in food induced coma. The food was decent and we had another bottle of wine while we chatted with a Swiss German couple. We met a lot of Swiss Germans and folks from the UK in New Zealand.

Once we were done eating (and drinking) we put on some warmer clothes and hung out on the top deck, just laying there, watching the clouds go by and listening. Other than the hum of the generators on the boats, the only things we heard were the waves and birds. Suddenly, we heard a shrill cry that I swear was a kiwi. We heard it multiple times. The only reason this is such a highlight is because our guide at Rainbow Springs who’s lived in New Zealand forever has only heard them once.

Oh, btw, the wind was howling all day. Good thing we weren’t in kayaks.

The next morning, we were served breakfast and explored more of the Doubtful Sound. We stopped in Hall Arm, where our nature guide explained that we’d be doing an exercise. Not a physical exercise, but a mental one: Listening to the Silence. The captain shut off the boats engine, and we just floated in Hall Arm listening to the waterfalls, birds and wind for about 5 minutes. Essentially, we were communing with nature. When I looked over at Greg, I could tell he was thinking, “How much longer is he going to make us do this stupid exercise?” I had to bite my tongue to keep myself from laughing outloud. I guess Greg’ll never be into meditation.

It was roughly noon when we got back to Te Anau. We checked into our hotel, grabbed a sandwich at Subway (we had to see if it was the same as in the US – pretty much was), and headed out on the 120 km drive towards the Milford Sound.

This was some of the most remarkable scenery that we’ve seen in New Zealand. Once we got into the foothills, we were treated to huge, snow topped cliffs, numerous waterfalls, and the rainforest. The pictures don’t do it justice…but it’s the best that we can do.

At one of our many stops, we came across two kea birds hopping about the pull out and posing for some close up pictures before they flew away. Kea’s are the world’s only non-tropical parrot, and as we found out, they like cars. We saw a description of them at Rainbow Springs that said they like to tear apart rubber (i.e. boots, windshield wipers, etc.). While waiting to go through a one-way tunnel, a kea hopped up on our hood. The light turned green and it hopped off again as we started to drive away. On the way back, we stopped at another pull out and another kea visited our car…starting on the side mirror and then onto the roof. It hopped onto the other side mirror and when I cracked the window open, it tried to gnaw on the glass and window seal. Of course, I took pictures of it while Cheryl told me not to taunt it. We had two more of these big green birds perch on our car at another pull out. It’s amazing how unafraid of humans they are!

As we wind down, we’re thinking about home. We miss our dog and are looking forward to kicking the Yamamoto’s butts in Guitar Hero. See everyone soon.