On The Kepler Track, 2014

After Doubtful Sound, we drove to Te Anau, our base in 2009, when we did the Milford, Routeburn, and parts of the Kepler Tracks. These are some of NZ's "Great Walks," and so far, in 2014, we are just doing bits and pieces of them. The day after our cruise, and after checking into the AYH, we did a day-hike that Vicki did on the Kepler in 2009, while I was climbing Mt. Luxmore.

One of the Great ones

Starts with a bridge and a view from the bridge, here, the
Waiai river, flowing from Lake Te Anau to Lake Manapouri

Another beautifully-groomed Kiwi trail, at least at the lower
elevations

Another view of the Waiau

Mt. Carrerra we called it; does contain some marble, though
mostly gneiss and quartzite

Another southern beech forest

With fern bushes

And a veritable carpet of spanghum moss

Boardwalk across the wetlands

And an arm (leg?) of Lake Manapouri

Doubtful Sound, 2

More of our cruise on Doubtful Sound. Did I mention that a) it is a fiord, not a sound? (much of New Zealand nomenclature is like that) and b) it got its name from Captain Cook, who pronounced it "doubtful" as an anchorage way back in the 1780s?

Us

Among the skerries, nosing in toward...

A fur seal rest area

Sentinel seal

The Tasman is Pacific in name only...

Thus

Night approaches in Snug Cove

Sunrise on the fiord; would this make a great sympathy card
or what?

Hosing down the anchor chain

More morning

Morning clouds, heading into the Moments of Silence...this is where they cruise
into another small arm of the fiord, right up to shore-line cliff, and then shut
down all the engines and motors and ask everyone to be silent and not even snap
photos so you can experience what the fiord is really like and it's so quiet you
can actually hear the sand-flies ashore massing for attack...

Last of the South Island Rota blooms

Heading back to the dock

Great experience!

Doubtful Sound, 1

There was never any doubt we'd do Doubtful Sound on this New Zealand visit. We drove by Manipouri in 2009, took note of it all, but figured we'd be back. We'd just done the Milford Tramp and seen Milford Sound. But now, finally, we're back, and the only question was whether we'd do the day cruise of New Zealand's largest accessible fiord or the over-night cruise. We opted for the latter, with Real Journeys, the largest of the tour/cruise firms operating in Fiordland. Basically, you ride a big catamaran across Lake Manipouri, transfer to a bus, ride it across Wilmot Pass, then settle into a day and night on the Fiordland Navigator. You're in the company of 50-60 other people, many of them splurging like us, but the cruise is worth every cent (particularly with various discounts, etc.). The scenery is incredible, the nature stuff impressive, the captain and crew great, the food very good (I really over-did the greenies), the special experiences--sunset and sunrise, spending the night anchored in a secluded cove, pulling into another and shutting down all the engines and motors to hear what the fiord is really like, venturing out into the Tasman Sea, etc.--were very special indeed. I'll do a couple posts and hope they can convey some of what we experienced.

Over the pass now, our first glimpse of Doubtful Sound, a small arm of it, that is 

The first of scores of waterfalls, big and small, high and low

Fiordland Navigator

The Cap'n

Vicki and I spent a good bit of time on the bridge--less wind, fewer sand-flies,
lots of  nautical and other information from the Cap'n

The Plan

Kayak fun

Oyster catcher

NZ pigeons

Weka; day-time version of Kiwi

Swimming fun (not us)

Sparkling waters

Out beyond the fiord for an hour's cruise around its mouth and a sense of what
the Tasman Sea is like

Australia...1,100 miles out that way

Sails set

Skerries all around

Queenstown Hill, 2014

Another day we decided to hike up Queenstown Hill, which affords great views and also some needed conditioning. We did the same hike in 2009, and, although much was changed, much also was the same.

The lift up the other hill toward Launch Control (bungy,
parasailing, other Kiwi delights)

SS Earnslaw belches its way across the lake toward Q-town

The great Elven gate to the hiking path on Queenstown Hill:
"speak, tourist, and enter"

People have built numerous small cairns at one of the switch-backs

And even a Fairy House (Penelope note)

The poisonous pizza mushrooms are still there

As are pretty flowers

And dark woods

It has become traditional, we have read, to do a "Birth of
Venus" pose from the Basket of Dreams sculpture atop the
hill; well, why not? Botticelli would be proud...

And then gaze upon the Remarkables

And the lake

Skippers Canyon: The Jet Boat Ride

Were I still in Montana or the inland northwest generally, I would not go near a jet boat. They have ruined too many beautiful rivers there. But, hey, I'm a tourist here, and it's not a great fishery, and the upper Shotover is pretty desolate, and...

The captain reviews the passenger instructions, which basically say to hang on for
dear life

And we are off...

Obligatory action shot (free for booking through the Black Sheep); there were
3 Koreans, us, a young woman from Nice, and a young man from Edinburgh;
jet boats need only a few inches of water, and they can attain speeds upwards
of 50 mph; so they said; and I don't doubt

Bonus along the way...the Fords of Bruinen, where the Black Riders ask Arwen
to kindly hand over the Halfling

And she doesn't

Well, you can hardly capture a jet boat ride in still photos, so I have added here a link to my shorter-version YouTube video of our experience. Hang on!