The second part of our trip predominantly took us to Fiordland, a part of New Zealand I have always wanted to go to. We wouldn't be able to do as much walking as I had originally planned as the storms at the start of the year had damaged quite a few of them.
Our first port of call was Te Anau, but not before we took a little detour up to Glenorchy to do a little Lord of the Rings site seeing. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to get to the two locations we were really hoping for, which were Isengard lookout and Lothlorien forest, as these were much further up the valley past Glenorchy.
However, we did stop at Twelve Mile Delta to take a little walk to Ithilien where Frodo, Sam, and Smeagol first see the Oliphants. Even though we didn't get to see all the sites, driving to Glenorchy was worth the detour in its own right as the valley is really beautiful and we loved Glenorchy itself. Definitely on the list of places to return to.
We reached Te Anau in the late afternoon where we intended to just stop to buy some bag straps for me and some food for the next couple of nights. I like Te Anau, it's a small town with everything you need in it but nothing more. Though admittedly we were seeing it offseason and it could have a very different feel during peak season. The drive to it was also amazing and gave us our first views of the mountains that make up Fiordland.
The plan that night was to drive further down the road to Milford Sounds and set up camp at one of the DOC sites where we would stay for the next two nights. However, these sites seem to be mostly designed for caravans and campervans, and the few locations we found between the trees where you could put a tent was only really suitable for smaller trekking tents rather than our larger tent. We did also wonder a little bit about how the local Kea would take to an unguarded tent during the day and whether we would come back to find it suitably dismantled. The long and short of it is that we drove back to Te Anau and stayed in a lovely individual room at the Lakefront Backpackers. It had everything we needed and was a very clean hostel.
The next day was the day I was looking forward to most of all, which was a Milford Sounds Cruise with Southern Discoveries. They usually recommend giving yourself quite a bit longer than Google maps normally recommends, probably due to the sheer amount of traffic that is normally found on that road. We reduced that time a little bit as we were definitely not in the busy season, but we were glad that we gave ourselves a little more leeway as damage done to the roads by the flooding earlier this year meant that there were road works everywhere. It's also a very windy road, so if you're not used to that then extra time is definitely a must.
The additional time on the road wasn't a waste though as it was a pretty amazing drive with beautiful scenery and lots of signs telling you not to stop for fear of death. Always good.
The cruise itself was amazing and completely worth facing the cold and getting a little wet at one of the waterfalls. We didn't get to see as much wildlife as it is sometimes possible to see, but seeing the dramatic glacier-formed landscape with trees clinging to practically nothing on sheer rock faces made up for that.
The skipper of the boat not only sailed us around the sound but gave a running commentary as he did so which was both informative and funny.
On the drive back to Te Anau we had planned to stop off at a number of viewpoints indicated on a map of the road we had gotten at an I-site. However, it turned out that most of these were either closed due to roads works and damage done by the flooding or we didn't see any signage until it was too late to turn without causing an accident. We did manage to get a stop at Mirror Lakes though for a two-minute walk.
The following day we had planned to walk a portion of the Kepler Trail starting just outside of Te Anau, hoping to get above the tree lines to get a view of the area, but by the time we had sorted out our gear and repacked the car (we were moving to different accommodation that night) it was much later than we had intended. We carried out the walk as planned, but didn't get to go out of the bush.
We were thinking that we might not have been able to get much of a view at all as the clouds were pretty low, but at one section there was an opening in the tree line and we could see above the low clouds. It was a pretty muggy walk and, in this form, probably not worth the trip and we didn't see or even hear much wildlife in the forest, but apparently it's a pretty amazing walk one you're above the bush.
That night we carried out a large purge of all our items as were would only be able to take one bag each onto the TranzAlpine Train and needed to do some decent purging. Unfortunately, we had to say goodbye to our trusty tent that had served us so well during our time in New Zealand, but hopefully, it can have a new life with someone else.
After dropping off some items at a charity shop we headed to Queenstown where we needed to drop off the car, but not before taking a quick detour to Arrowtown. I would definitely recommend going to see this town if you're in the area as, the centre at least, is a little capsule of history with buildings from the 18th century gold rush.
I had wanted to spend a little more time there if we could, but we had to be back in Queenstown for 2pm, so instead we had a little potter around the centre, some lunch, and then went to look at the Chinese settlement - which was the main reason we were there. It's been pretty unusual to come across information about the non-European settlers in New Zealand, but this was a really good insight into the conditions that some Chinese settlers had to live in and the treatment that many of them received.
We had come to the realisation now that the chances of us seeing a Kiwi in the wild were basically non-existent, at least during this trip to New Zealand. So, we took a trip to the Kiwi Birdlife Park in Queenstown that happened to also be having a deal on their ticket prices that day. Not only did we finally get to see three Kiwis, with a hilarious moment were one of the females knew that the noise to her enclosure door meant that more food was coming in and rushed at an amazing speed across her enclosure to gobble it all up whilst the male remained in the back corner, but I also got to see the Tuatara lizard, had my clothes slightly manhandled by a Kea, and got a close up of our favourite bird, the Morepork. There wasn't really much else we wanted to do in Queenstown, so we had a couple of drinks in town before heading to bed.
The next day was basically just a day driving to Greymouth in bad weather. We had tentatively hoped to see the Fox and Franz Josef glaciers on the way up, though we knew we probably wouldn't have enough time and that turned out to be true (apart from a vague glimpse). So they can be added to a time when we can do the trip a little more slowly next time. Other than that, there isn't really too much more to write about when it comes to this journey.
Our last day of travel saw us spending the morning pottering around Greymouth where there doesn't seem to be too much to do except visit the museum (which was closed), sit in a cafe, and go to a gem of a secondhand book shop called Red Bookstore. From a tourist point of view, it seems to mainly be about the TranzAlpine Train. We quite liked it though as a possible place to reside.
When we first organised this trip we hadn't planned on going on the TranzAlpine Train due to the price, but they had put out a deal and, in probably consequence, the train was packed. I hate to say it, but this trip wasn't as good as we were hoping. We did get some pretty good views, but there didn't seem to be too many that you wouldn't have been able to get by driving along the road that snaked beside it for most of the journey.
You are given headphones so that you can listen to the commentary they provide along the route and the sections about Maori inhabitants and early European settlers and explorers were interesting. However, they did seem to be stretching it a bit to try and find information to provide and, at one point, the they were telling us about a modern building built for the dairy industry. I guess what is interesting is a matter of opinion, but it seemed a little odd to me.
Our last couple of days were spent in Christchurch with my aunt and uncle and there isn't really anything extra to tell you about on that front. If you want to find out what I did last time you can read it here in my previous blog. And then, after a lot a faffing with airlines where I'm going to have a little fight on my hands to get my money back, we were off to the UK on Singapore Airlines and I have to admit they looked after us pretty well.
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