On my way to Wanaka I took a diversion up Coronet peak, the road goes to the Ski centre which is about 1700m up, the summit above is 2100m. No snow and a bit misty but beautiful views. They don’t believe in safety barriers on the mountain road here.
This is the ascent road.
The ski centre which is currently closed.
Queenstown is the adventure capital of New Zealand, It is also a central position to visit most scenic areas by air.
A mountain lift to a point to jump off under a sheet if you have the inclination.
There are many sports available here including bungee jumping, sky diving, parascending etc.
Or just a leisurely cruise on a steamship.
And of course an Irish bar.
Shotover Falls is the place for white water boating.
I stayed in Te Anau for a couple of days and visited Doubtful Sound, Manapouri Lake and Power Station. Doubtful named by Captain Cook although larger than Milford the entrance from the Tasman Sea is quite narrow and he thought that it was doubtful there would be enough room to turn a sailing ship if they entered. Again this is not in fact a sound but a fiord.
I took a trip from Te Anau to visit a Cave that contained thousands of glow worms. This involved an evening trip across lake Te Anau. It was not possible to take a any pictures in the cave. The lake covers 360 square kilometres and after a heavy storm will regularly gain a metre in height that is an increase of 360,000,000 cubic metres of water not counting the flow out at the end of the lake. That's a lot of rain!
There is no access to Doubtful Sound by road, first we took a trip across Lake Manapouri.
Another tree avalanche.
At the end of the lake is the Manapouri 700 MW Hydro electric power station. We went by coach down a 10km tunnel to the power station.
The generator room, the turbines are below the floor.
A turbine from an earlier era before a huge upgrade to increase the output by 200MW.
We then had a 2 hour 4 wheel drive coach trip along the Wilmot Pass to get to Doubtful Sound.
There are regular traps along this road and throughout New Zealand as they are trying to rid the country of all the vermin introduced by the early settlers. Possums, rats, weasels stoats rabbits, wasps to name a few. Our guide told us in this area when they first started trapping they caught 5000 possums in the first month now they are down to 50 a month.
Doubtful Sound at last.
There is a large seal colony on the island at the entrance ahead.
They are obviously all very busy!
There was also an albatross colony nearby.
The weather held out well until this point at the Tasman Sea but was not so good on the return journey. It was a very long day and we did not get back until late evening.
It’s not me that can’t spell fjord it’s the Kiwis. All around the south west coast are some nice crinkly edges to the coastline, where the glaciers have carved out a number of fiords. One of the most spectacular is Milford Sound. Which was first discovered by a Welshman John Grono. He named it after Milford Haven in South Wales. It was later renamed Milford Sound, not realising that it was not a sound but a fiord. Milford has a depth of 350m but some of the fiords are almost 500m deep.
Getting to Milford Sound involves a climb of 900m up a long winding mountain road, a trip through a 1.5km tunnel carved through the mountain which drops by 100m over it’s length the a further 800m mountain road down to Milford.
On the way I stopped to look at a waterfall and chasm.
The road to Milford.
My first view of Milford Sound, The weather was not looking good but the forecast for the next day was better so a booked a boat trip and found a camper van site for the night.
Throughout the night it poured down it was so heavy that it kept me awake hammering on the camper van roof. The rainfall here is 9 meters a year. A guide told me that last year they had a drought, it did not rain for 7 days! By the morning it had stopped and it looked promising for later in the day, my trip started at 11.30.
One of the advantages of the overnight rain was all the waterfalls running down the mountains. There are only 3 permanent falls in the sound.
Some fur seals on the rocks.
Fairy Falls.
A tree avalanche, the forest grows down the steep sides of the mountain, all the roots are entwined and if one tree dies for some reason and falls it starts an avalanche and all the trees end up in the water.
Out into the Tasman sea near St Anne’s Point
Visibility improved on the way back but a lot of the waterfalls had stopped.
A sea lion basking.
Stirling Falls, 155m drop.
The clouds are lifting very quickly.
Mount Pembroke 2014m with a permanent glacier on the top.
Mount Pembroke on the right and Mitre Peak 1682m on the left it claims to be one of the highest mountains in the world to rise up from the ocean floor.
Lady Bowen Falls, this falls 161m and supplies all the water for the town of Milford and also all the electricity.
Another view of Mitre Peak, I understand this is quite a rare sight.
Now the trip back over the mountain. Views down the valley.
The tunnel entrance above.
Out of the Homer Tunnel again. The tunnel is only wide enough for 1 vehicle there are four passing places but during the day time there are traffic lights which have a 15 minute turn around.
Back down the mountain and find a camp for the night.
