A beautiful day – clear blue skies, not much wind. Great, considering that this is a very wet and cloudy area. Despite the brochures, there are only about 50 days a year of clear blue skies and they say here that you can experience all four seasons in one day. Crossed the street to the Real Journeys office and at 6:55 am, we set off for the Doubtful Sound excursion, part one of my two day trip to Fiordland. We drove along the eastern shore of Lake Wakatipu, heading south, with a lovely view of the Remarkables, a saw-toothed range. Once we turned west, we were in the Te Anau basin, a flat area of sheep, cattle and deer ranches. The European red deer was introduced to provide venison for overseas markets and horns for Asian markets (aphrodisiacs). A ten-minute ride to us to Matapouri at the head of its eponymous Lake. We took a boat from Pearl Harbour across the lake to West Arm, the site of an underground power station (more later). Absolutely breathtaking (have I used that word yet??!!! A coach took us across the Wilmot Pass, to Doubtful Sound on a road built for the power station and great expense. The steepest road in NZ, without which the only access to Doubtful Sound would be by sea. Cool temperate forest dominated by silver beech, which are evergreens and look like overgrown bonsai trees. NZ’s trees are mostly evergreen; only 12 deciduous varieties. The views were spectacular as we made our way up to the top of the pass. Geographical names are interesting here. Apart from the lovely Maori names, most places are named after English or Scottish towns and famous people, notably the great surveyors. We were on an Irish road, viewing the Kepler, German, range and another Matterhorn, by the Spey, Scottish, and an unpronounceable Welsh waterfall. As for Doubtful Sound, James Cook so named it because he doubted he would find safe harbour in the fiord. Well, think of those French explorers who named the Grand Tetons!!!
When we got to Deep Cove on Doubtful Sound, the second largest fiord, we were in the heart of Fiordland, an area of snow-capped mountains and vivid blue lakes. This is the largest of New Zealand’s national parks and is a world heritage area. The area is virtually impenetrable. The Maoris called this area Atefenoa – or Shadowlands. They did not live here, but came to find greenstone or nephrite jade, which they used for weapons and adornment. When the European settlers came to this area, they found an abundance of flightless birds, of all sizes. The enormous moa and others were hunted to extinction. The birds evolved this way because they had no predators. Colonists introduced rabbits and opossum for the fur industry, which was not successful; later stoats and weasels were introduced to get rid of the rabbits, but they also went after the birds, many species of which are endangered. Stoat traps are set out every day and little by little bird populations are recovering. We saw no birds, but heard their beautiful songs from the forest. Once can only imagine what the first settlers heard!!!!
On interesting botanical factoid – the flowers here are all white and that is because there are very few bees, due to the humidity, and only a few bats for pollination. So? You say. Well, pollination takes place at night – by moths! The white color is more visible at night.
Although the settlers named these arms of the Tasman Sea sounds, they are, in fact, not sounds, but fiords, carved out by glaciers in the last ice age. We embarked on another boat, a beautiful catamaran. We had an excellent guide – informative, but not obtrusive. Shall I use the words stunning and breathtaking again? Well, it’s true. The pristine beauty is almost beyond description. The lush forests meet the deep blue water, which is dotted with island at the upper end. There are no landfalls. The captain turned the engines and generator off at one point; told us all to go to the upper deck and ordered us not to talk, walk or take photos for 3 minutes. “This is Fiordland”, he said…..and we listened to the sounds of silence. A beautiful moment.
We nosed up to an island, looking for the blue penguin, the smallest of all penguins and found two of them, just visible, behind a low-hanging branch. We then headed out to the Tasman Sea to explore some islands at the entrance to the fiord, named for the captain and the botanist on a Spanish Expedition in 1793. We found a large colony of fur seals, with a big bull guarding his harem. To everyone’s delight we found a small group of Fiordland crested penguins. They have a distinctive yellow stripe over each eye. These wildlife sightings were very exciting.
We then headed back down the fiord, exploring Crooked Arm along the way. Back on the coach and over the Wilmot Pass again. Before we got to West Arm, we entered a 2 km long tunnel, the access tunnel to the Manapouri Power Station, the largest hydro power station in NZ. Power is generated from units housed in a cavern 200 m below the surface of the lake. The station was built to take advantage of the height difference between the lake and the sea, the mountains providing a natural dam. The electricity generated is used to power the aluminum smelter in Bluff, at the southernmost point of South Island. The bauxite comes from Australia. We visited the generating room where only the tops of the generators were visible; there were still more levels below us. It was very impressive.
Once back at Deep Cover, we boarded our boat for the return trip across Lake Manapouri and then I boarded a bus for Ten Anau where I spent the night. I had just enough time to drop off my suitcase and then it is was off on another adventure. An evening cruise on Lake Te Anau, taking us to the Te Anau glowworm caves. Another beautiful lake with stunning views of the mountains. The trip into the caves was absolutely fascinating. We made our way along a walkway, ducking from time to time, above a rushing torrent – a river from a mountain lake, making its way through the limestone and sandstone, to Lake Te Anau. There was very little light. Gradually, we made our way to the main cave and entered a flat boat, which the guide maneuvered through the water by means of a chain affixed to the rock. We moved in silence, no talking, no cameras, in pitch-black darkness. And when I say pitch black, I mean pitch black. It was definitely eerie…..it felt as though we were crossing the River Styx! And then, there they were…..tiny fairy lights, some white, some green…everywhere. The guide stopped the boat from time to time so we could just gape. We could only see the light, which is in the glowworm’s tail, not the entire creature. The light acts as a lure for insects, some larger than the worm itself!! The worm spins a thread from its mouth, from which little droplet of mucous hang; the worm then reels the strand in and attaches it to the rock; the worm makes many of these “fishing rods” which look like strands of miniature pearls. It then waits for its dinner, which can be a tiny gnat or a large moth. It senses the vibration when the prey is caught in the mucous and it reels it in straight into its mouth. The worm is actually the larval stage of a fly. All it does is eat for 9 months, then enters a cocoon stage from which a large fly emerges. The fly has no digestive system; it exists purely to mate and die. Then another cycle begins.
I struck up a conversation with a delightful English couple from Essex who are seeing every inch of NZ by campervan. We got along famously and they were very good company. We took the boat back to TeAnau at dusk. The sky was a lovely yellow and grey. I had a very late, 9:30, dinner which I could barely eat I was so tired and went to bed. The blog will have to wait until tomorrow!
Lake Te Anau at sunset.
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