We began by cleaning 10 backpacker rooms. After some brief instructions by the housekeeper, Noeline, Seth took over the linens and beds while I cleaned the bathrooms and vacuumed. It wasn’t too bad—it took about two hours and it went by quickly.
We got held up making some bookings for the next night’s hostel, but luckily Matt, the chef, offered us some lunch (very delicious pasta leftovers from the night before, and some tuna-olive-egg salad stuff) and we rushed out to Milford Sound. Not too far down the road we heard a loud bang and looked out the window just in time to see Seth’s famous Hershey World mug spinning across the street, tea swirling everywhere. In our hurry to leave the Lodge he forgot to take his mug from the roof of the car. Though thick plastic, his much-loved mug (like an extension of his body) had its handle bust off, leaving a hole in the outer layer of plastic. We gathered up the bits (and this morning while running we found the lid), and I think he is going to try to salvage it.
We continued up the road to the sound. The road is about 120km long, one way, and packed full of tour buses and stupid-looking Wicked Vans (rental vans painted in 1960s psychedelic style to look real artsy and funky--they are EVERYWHERE). The drive, however, was breathtaking. It passed along rolling hills, gorges, waterfalls, rivers, and other glacier-carved landscapes. We stopped at Mirror Lakes, then at Deer Flat for our pasta lunch, hoping we would be visited by keas. No parrots in sight, we continued through the Homer Tunnel (1207m long) that passes through an amphitheatre-like wall and emerges in a steep canyon near Milford.
Once in Milford Sound we checked in to the loading docks for our 2hr 15min cruise, which is unfortunately the best (and cheapest) way to see the extremely remote fiord. The other options include a kayak tour or helicopter flight over the fiords. I had my initial hesitations about getting back onto a boat, especially since my previous catamaran encounter to go whale-watching in Maine not only included spotting no whales, but also made me very, very sea sick. The cruise in Milford Sound was alright, and I am glad we did it, but since it has been very dry here (just like in Australia), there were hardly any waterfalls. There are apparently thousands of waterfalls after a good rain. Also, the sun was shining and burned away all the cool clouds, so the sky wasn’t very dramatic looking at all. In fact, though this is a rainforest, it has only rained once since we arrived. Hmmm… As for the expense, the cruise was $150(NZ) for the two of us, which is how much we saved on three nights’ accommodation at the lodge. We broke even by working 6 hours each.
10:30pm- Written from Curio Bay
During the drive back from Milford Sound we passed back through the tunnel and on the other side we spotted a group of big, fat, green keas! These parrots were truly amazing: super smart, curious, and real tricksters and trouble-makers. We got out of the car to take a closer look. You could instantly tell how intelligent they are by the way they would cock their head and look at you, like they were analysing you. One kea began following Seth around and started to nip at his ankles, and as I was cracking up at this, I turned around and found three perched atop our poor blue car. One was pulling at the windshield-wiper, another was sharpening his super long beak on the roof, and the third pulling on the plastic strip above the door. More flew down from the cliffs and they had us surrounded, about a dozen strong. They hopped around us and kept coming closer to the car, so we decided to get out of there fast, or else find a way to pay off damages to the rental car.
We next stopped at The Divide (the lowest east-west pass in the Southern Alps, on Milford Road) and walked the Key Summit Trail up to the top. The trail is initially shared with the three-day Routeburn Track, which we had planned to walk but could not because it was fully booked. After about 30min it split off the Routeburn and took a steep climb to the top of a remarkable summit, quite a ways above the tree-line. Near the top we found alpine pools/lakes/bogs nestled in mountain cradles. We also saw several small birds and wondered if they were rare rock wrens: little birds found only in the alpine ranges south of Fiordland. Across the range clouds pushed through the neighbouring mountains, and not wanting to get caught in unpredictable weather we hustled back down the mountain. In fact, we started the trail late in the evening (about 7pm) and knew we would have only a little time before dark, so we walked it really fast: in total it took us only 2 hours, while it is labeled as a 3 hour trek. We definitely made good time.
Driving back down the rest of the road to the lodge we did our part for the environment and hit a hare. We had never hit and killed anything before (while driving together) so we felt kinda bad. At least it was a horrible invasive critter and not a kakapo!At the end of the night we cooked up dinner and shared some chocolate cake that Matt (the chef) gave us. It also felt great to have a room to ourselves, since similar to the previous night, Sharon did not book anyone else in our room. We got to spread everything out, talk at normal speaking volume and keep the lights on as we wanted. We even had our very own bathroom and TV! Soooo spoiled!!!
So with all the adventures from the day, I would say the Milford Sound Cruise was made less spectacular by the keas, the hike, the beautiful drive, running down the hare, and watching Seth’s mug fly off the car roof :PThis morning we slept in until about 8am, and after a short run we had brunch, and checked out of the Fiordland National Park Lodge. We went back to town to pick up a better and more comprehensive NZ bird book, returned our first one, and got a few more groceries.
We drove the Southern Scenic Route down south, back to the coast, and headed east along the southern part of the South Island (the Catlins). We stopped at Invergargill briefly to get a few more things from a super cheap and gigantic Pak N Save (I love this store!) then continued east to Curio Bay. The drive was scenic, indeed, though I slept through bits of it. I have been sleeping in the car way more than I would like, but I have been just too tired to help it. Between falling asleep at the wheel and not liking to drive narrow, twisting mountain roads, I am glad Seth has been doing the driving! He isn’t supposed to, however, because his NC driver’s license expired since he has been in Australia, so when we hire cars they always have to be under my name, even though I am under 25.
We drove from rain forest to inland pastures and country side and into the very wind-swept southern coast. What an interesting change!
We got to Curio Bay around 7:30pm, checked in and cooked a quick dinner. The hostel, Dolphin Lodge, is a bit cramped but it is in a great ocean-front location with a fantastic view of the bay, which is home to a group of Hector’s Dolphins (the world’s smallest dolphin, about 1.3m long—only found in New Zealand coastal waters) and very occasionally whales. The owner teaches surfing lessons outside. In the late evening, we once again found ourselves rushing, this time to a lookout to see rare yellow-eyed penguins coming to shore for the night. I had never seen wild penguins before so was pretty excited to see them. We got there a bit late so missed the bulk of the little clowns (about 5 pairs of adults and up to 10 large chicks), but got to watch one pair hanging out on the rocks. They were so cute, swimming around, hopping over rocks, and trying to get around on those short legs of theirs. The next few nights we will try to stay at places that also have penguin nesting sites so we can try watching them again.
No comments:
Post a Comment