2011, April 2nd - April 15th: New Zealand, South & North. Invercargill - Punakaika. 👍

Dateline: 2011 April 2nd - April 15th New Zealand

This trips travelling map around NZ South

Just another trip, New Zealand (Yeah, right)

At the top of the pass to Doubtful Sound (background)

But I digress. There's a lot of travel and incredible sights to see.

Now, read on Dear Reader

We are out of Invercargill and on the road
to Manipuri, big time Southern Highlands

Somewhere near Blackmount, about 70Kms
from Invercargill

Oooops!
I alway travel with milk, here about a 3 litre jug
Unfortunately, about 2 litres leaked onto the back seat
This stank for most of the trip

Our super cheap car hire in the southern outback
heading north

View from our motel in Manapouri
There was snow on the peaks the next morning

I do remember it being rather wet, and cold here

It's all like this. End of season, so accommodation 
is easy everywhere 

Across from the village is a hill

Just south of Manipuri, over a river 
It's a very green and moist hill
I get a ferry over the river 

And attempt to climb it
It's truly stunning, just green multihued moss
It's easy to see how this is Middle Earth

Amazingly, I have full service on my phone here,
so I'm actually sending pix of where I am hiking to
Andrei at work in Toronto, and he's following me
on Googles location sharing app. Wild tech stuff

I finally reach the top
Yeah, bit of a letdown, but what the hell

We awake to the results of storm clouds over
mountains. We are scheduled to head over there today

We are booked for an overnighter for a cruise
in Doubtful Sound. 

Which is just over those mountains yonder

We are a tiny party (8 I believe) heading to the sound
All other partakers are day trippers

At the top of the pass, the bus stops for us to get our tourist pix

That's it. Doubtful Sound

So called because Captain Cook (for yes, it was he)
thought it "doubtful" 

that he could ever get the ship out due to the 
lack of decent winds

First stop is some lobster traps that the
crew put down yesterday

We have embarked and head out

Unfortunately for the crew, they are all empty

So, donning double 0.7mm wet suits,

This lady heads out

And returns with the spoils of the deep

Rather them than me. It must be close to zero
in these latitudes

As Fran'N'Furter would say "A tender subject" 

We have been given rods and bait
It's amazingly perfect out on the stern
Amazingly, everyone catches at 
least 1 fish. More for the pot

I do love lobster, but typically, I'm too cheap to pay such exorbitant amounts for it. We had a half each, supplemented by our super fresh catch.
I definitely wanted much more
After this feast, I went onto the roof to watch the stars
Down here, with no light pollution, it was amazing

Morning. No one else out here

Cook was probably right about the winds in here

Mists, but not much in the way of mellow fruitfulness

Heading for the open sea

 Which was a lot rougher than inside the
protection of the sound

A stunning trip
Totally worth getting here

I know, tourist stuff,
I think I investigated some caves

OK, been there etc etc

And that's it as we head back to shore

 back to Manapouri for the night, coffee at Te Anau, here
You can experience an awful lot in Fiordland in a few days

Next stop is Milford Sound, the holy grail of hikers
It was while I was driving past Te Anau downs,
minding my own business, that Ilge said
"You know that you are driving on the wrong side of the road?"
I still think of the destruction that could have caused, especially as I was on a blind bend at the time

The amazing route from Te Anau to Milford

Over to the left, Milford track
Probably a bit wet today

On route to the sound, a stop off

This overlooking Routeburn track
North

Routeburn track, detail, south

Milford Sound. This is where the track ends
"Sandfly Point". I wonder why
The problem with so many waterfalls, is that you need
huge amounts of rain to sustain them
Yes, we got really wet occasionally

Totally otherworldly. I've seen these shots in several Sci-Fy movies

That's some glacier channel

Accommodation here is really difficult,
even in the wildly off season
We ended up sharing the last available room here
The sharers arrived about 2AM

Anyway, I work out that an early morning cruise (8AM) that included
breakfast was the real way to go. Hardly anyone else on board, well, you need to have slept locally, so that makes sense

Luckily, all the dark clouds from 
yesterday have passed

The glaciers were more than half a kilometre thick, but not anymore

And we are treated to some of the most stunning views in the world

From Milford Sound cruise looking back to what is loosely called town

Years later, this is probably still the most stunning
scenic boat trip I've ever taken

Kea and friends waiting for handouts.
High altitude NZ parrots and supporters

Heading back to Te Anau. Just another park on
the road, 

but even here, there's
wheelchair access

Did I say walking stick access?
Well, for about 500 metres

Of course, with a local map, I see there's a
lake up there, so, the missus reads a book

And I set out for 

A pile of scree

And some kind of victory over what wasn't impossible

And now, a few days R&R in Te Anau

Of course, there's a track here
Kepler is the 3rd most popular in the South Island

I remember my feet complaining
at a very early stage

But it's what you can't see that's
out to get you. Sand fleas
Some of the bites took a month to heal 

I had no idea how far I would get, but I gave up
after about 4 hours and lucked out with a boat across the bay

Back to civilisations simpler pleasures

April is pretty much end of season down here
But still fabulous coffee everywhere we go

Next day to Queenstown, "Adrenalin capital of the world" or thereabouts
Whatever adventure you are partial to, it's here

 

Fall in the parks here. Very spectacular

All around is the southern alps

We head to Arrowtown. Some people like it
The ancient gold rush village kept intact as a
functioning town. A wee bit twee for me

Next to Cromwell. The country is just a farm
We stopped at an orchard and bought a few litres
of real cider.

And find a B&B on the banks of the local lake
We eat out at a local restaurant. Fabulous grub

The hire car comes with a free ferry 
to Wellington. I have to reserve a date
so we now have a timeline

Wanaka. Gods country par excellence

We head to the tourist centre (usually a function
in every town) and end up with this glorious view at our accommodation
At night, I sit in the bay window looking out at the lake in the moonlight
with lights in the hills beyond as I'm coding away earning an incredible
amount as I consult my way around this beautiful part of the world

There's huge amounts of hiking around here
and I'm off to climb a bit of the white bits

Real glaciers.
I have zero idea of how far I'm going, just where

Crazy guy that I am, we've driven from Cromwell to Wanaka this morning, found a place and I'm off to climb Mt Aspiring before 1PM 
The route included the foot bridge

As far as mountain hikes went,
it was a decent break 

Incredibly scenic hike

Very pretty, and almost no one
else on the trail

The Rob Roy mountain track ends here
This was as far as I went
From about 400 metres to 800 metres

You could hear the ice cracking
and falling from these glaciers

Damp and cool. Just about optimal
hiking conditions, except it was 
still a bit wet 

It was a late night for me

Wanaka has a huge glacial lake as a major part
of the area

It's a magnificent, laid back place

We are in the grounds of the 
Edgewater Hotel. A fantastic nook.
Yes, we have been here before

There was something
touching on art about this place

Cabin and table with a view
I've got some more gig work while I'm here
I sit in a little alcove in the evening (after a
perfect barbeque of course) and tap away on my
laptop coding on computers 15000 kilometres away

Yes, it's fall here, with relevant colours
Such a delight

Attention all Brothel keepers and associated trades entrepreneurs

It was always such magic here
Of course, a few hours of consulting covers a few days of this

At least 5 types of scones, all perfect in their own way
What's not to like

NZ always has another world take on the realities
of life

We are heading North.
Yes, just enough Wanaka to remind us of the
wonders of life, and we're back on the road

Get the picture?

It has pissed down for hours. We almost didn't
make it it was so miserable. Lots of night driving
in heavy storms

But we made it to our first stop, Fox Glacier

Isn't it beautiful here! 

Definitely end of season. There's hardly 
anything open now

But of course, you can get a fabulous coffee anywhere and everywhere
in New Zealand

I take a brief hike around
Lake Matheson

A local park with a cafe

And cows of course

Mt. Cook. Stunning stuff
 I have no plans for Mt. Cook

We were so glad to arrive, so all of this domesticity
and pastural scenes was just bliss

We don't get many duo non selfies
Here at the local park cafe, soon to close for the season. Mostly locals now
Oh yes, Mt Cook in the background

But! We are on a mission
There's a lot of envious people back home in
Toronto

And we don't want to
disappoint them

So, it's time for glaciers. This one, Fox, as in the village

It's about a 5Km hike through desolate 
post glacial debris

 

Fox Glacier in the frozen reality of global warming
This is as far as you get without a guide

Shrinking, rapidly of course

The path takes you through the
full gamut of valley glaciation flora

Rather sad in it's own way. Austere, beautiful, deserted, definitely

There's a lot of stunning vista's here
But now, we're heading out to Franz Josef

Franz Josef Glacier. Many millennium to make this monster

Note blackened surface. Yep, pure carbon

Catch it while it's still here.
Probably gone in 70 years.

Maybe some of that black stuff came from your
previous vacations in the 60's?

We're back on the road, ever North, and East now

Somewhere north of Greymouth
Pretty apt huh?
There's one pretty dire cafe in Greymouth
and not much else as I remember

From Your Correspondent