Continuing on with the New Zealand photos, to one of my favorite sections of my trip- Fjordlands National Park. This area is perhaps best known for the Milford Sounds, and the Milford Trek. This is one of the “great walks” of New Zealand, winding through mist and rain, and rainforest ferns to view beautiful stretches of waterways stretching out into the stormy Tasman sea. Unfortunately, as I had mentioned in my earlier post, we stumbled over to New Zealand in the middle of tourist season, and the infamous Milford track would have been inundated by hikers, with the sound full of boats on 2 hour cruises with hundreds of people on board. Pretty, yes, but not quite my style.
Looking for a slightly less traveled alternative, we came across the Doubtful Sounds. Lonely Planet’s guidebook says that when choosing between the Doubtful and Milford Sounds “there’s no doubt which one you should choose.” We took the advice, and headed out for the day towards Doubtful Sound. It was a long journey, crossing by boat over Lake Manapouri, with another classic New Zealand rainbow.
After crossing the lake, we then took a bus over a mountain pass before cresting over to a beautiful view of the Doubtful Sound.
A full day on the water took us through some dramatic changes is weather, from raging wind and rain to beautiful sunny spells of total calm. This area gets some of the most rain in the world, more than 6 meters per year, with rain on over 200 days of the year. However, it certainly made the place seem a lot more remote and wild, and all the more beautiful.
Off the water, we took a long day hike along the Keppler Track, starting from the shores of Lake Manapouri and climbing steeply through the cool weather rainforest and then above the treeline in the mountains.
Yes, I know that my dad is in a number of these pictures, I was the one with the camera the whole time. I did manage to get into a few photos though.
Overall, the Keppler Track was absolutely gorgeous. However, I was really looking forward to our long trek along the Routeburn Trail. Some say it’s better than the Milford Track, and I really wanted to get out for several days in the mountains. More to come! (Routeburn Trek, Fox Glacier, Pancake rocks, Abel Tasman national park, Volcano climbing and more)!
no comments