From: "Philip Merryman" <phil_merryman@hotmail.com>

Date: Sat Mar 30, 2002 08:23:02 AM Etc/GMT

Subject: Sensory Overload Part 2 - The Fiords

Hi again!

After the stopover where we had fun in the jetboat the next day we made our way, with a few much quieter people that morning, to Queenstown. On the was we stopped off at Wanaka. This weekend that small town is host to the Warbirds over Wanaka airshow, probably the biggest in the Southern Hemisphere. However this is no good to me because I am going the other way and now in Dunedin! But I just thought you might like to know!

Just outside Wanaka we had a short stop at a couple of activity places. The first was called "Have a Shot" where you could try your hand a clay pigeon, .22 rifle, archery or even golf! With a name like mine it just a had to be archery! You got a bow and arrows and 45 minutes to have as many shots as you can! Afetr the first few I managed to get the hang of the left-right aiming, but I never quite got the hang of up and down! So most of my arrows were within the width of the target but many were above and below! However I did hit the target many times, including 3 bulls!! Quite encouraging I think considering I had never done it before!

The other stop was a few minutes up the road at a place called Puzzleword. Here they had a big maze including bridges. You had to reach the towers at each of the 4 corners before finding your way out again! It took me about 10 mins to get to one corner, I had done all 4 in 25 minutes, but it took about another 15 to get out!! There was a notice saying that the maze had 1.5km of path but that you usaully walk 5km before getting out! (If you didn't cheat - they had escape gates!)They also had all sorts of illusions in rooms and puzzles to have a go at. However by far the best was the sloping room. Here everything was set at a steep angle and as soon as you walked into it you lost your balance! It was like walking on a ship on a rolling sea. As a result of this it was full of illusions like water flowing up hill, riding up hill on a chair on rollers and getting the stairs back down, climbing up a ladder by leaning away from the wall, etc.. Really wierd!

From there we stopped at the bridge made famous for being the original bungy jump site. A couple on our bus had signed up for this so we waited while they had their turn and watched all the others leaping off, some with more intent than others! This is something I have no intention of doing! Similarly with jumping out of a perfectly good aircraft, which 4 others had done while we were in Puzzleworld!

We arrived eventually in Queenstown. This is the white knuckle capital of NZ and arguably the world, but is also the gateway to the Fiordland, which was my main focus of my trip to the South Island. I had booked a trip to Milford Sound as part of my Magic Bus itineray, but since arriving had also booked a 2 day trip to the much larger and less accessible Doubtful Sound. So although I was technically in QT for 3 days I was actually out of it pretty much all the time except for sleeping!

The next day was an early start as it takes 5 hours to get to Milford! The journey out of QT goes through some pretty impressive scenery, but at 7am I am not the most receptive! Furthermore while it may be pretty good in normal circumstances, compared to where we were going it wasn't much! After Te-Anau, about half way, you enter the Fiordland National park. This is where the recent NZ tourism promotional film was shot (whoops I mean "Lord of the Rings"!). Seemingly down every valley here and there was one film site or another. As the road approaches Milford the valleys get narrower and the mountains higher. Eventually you are winding through a spectacular valley overloked by high snow topped mountains. However to get into Milford sound they had to dig a tunnel about 2km or so through the mountains. As you enter this, with the hills towering overhead, it dives down quite steeply and you get the feeling you are decending into the centre of the Earth!

However emerging at the other end is breathtaking! Once your eyes have adjusted to the light straight in front are mountains with snow and valleys with trees and below the road descends (dives!) in an alpine zig zag into the valley. When you look back you see that the tunnel has come out half way up the sheer mountainside. Directly above it is vertical. There was no other way in except by tunnelling. This is the Cleddau valley and in fact Milford is named after Milford Haven, so a strong Welsh influence here! A few minutes of winding down this road you each the end of the Fiord. As we did so the driver said "This is what all the fuss is about". Just in front is the head of the water and overlooking this directly in front is Mitre peak, so named because it resembles a Bishop's Mitre. This conical mountain is over 1800 metres high (over a mile!) and slopes directly down to the water! It is the highest mountain to rise directly out of the sea in the world! The Fiord is to the right of it and another valley to the left. However this is just one of many surrounding mountains and valleys.

We had a boat trip out to the sea and back taking about 2 hr 30 min. As you progress down the fiord the views just get even more staggering. High and large waterfalls 3 times higher than Niagara, overhanging cliffs 600m up to the overhang of 50 metres and a further 600m above that! The sky was a clear blue at the head of the Fiord with wispy clouds coming and going from the peaks. I just cannot describe the majesty of this place, you are only really going to appreciate it by coming here!

On the way to Milford the driver had told us of some other things we might do. One of these was that after getting back off the boat to take a helicopter up to the top of one of the mountains, throw a few snowballs about (his words!) and then fly up the valley to the tunnel. Given the perfect weather conditions I jumped at this for the views just had to be unbelivable. However it needed 3 people for it to go, and no one else on our bus, or any other bus at Milford that afternoon wanted to!!! So I missed out again! :-( One is not commercially viable! I just cannot believe that out of the dozens of people, even hundreds, that no one else wanted to do this!!! Grrr!

The drive back was a repeat of the drive out. As the evening drew on the light changed all the time and made it interesting. Eventually an almost full moon emerged over the mountains which was quite atmospheric. However it was a long run and so we had another movie in the bus. So eventually having left at 7am we got back to QT at 8pm!!

Next morning it was up again for the Doubtful Sound trip. However this was at a much more civilised 08.50 almost a lie in!!! But again I had the 2 hour run to Te-Anua I had done the day before! However, different company, different driver, different commentary! At Te-Anau after ther wa smaller bus (the big one was going to Milford again) to lake Manapoura (I think) where we joined a boat at the small Pearl Harbour! (No, I am not kidding!!). This boat takes 40 minutes to travel along this lake. At one point you got the feeling you were in Lord of the Rings as you went past the hills (and there was another film site up another side valley!). However, unlike yesterday as we crossed the lake the clouds gathered, a strong wind got up and eventually it began to rain. The boat docked at a sall jetty by the power station. A Hydro scheme built in the 50s & 60s. Just as you approach you go under the power cables strung across the valley from the power station just there. There was several of them and it felt like you were sailung under a huge "cats cradle".

To build the power station a road had to be built over the hills from Doubtful sound the other side. The power station site has no road access from anywhere else and this road a has no connectiln to any other road. However it now provideds access from Lake Manapura to Doubtful so the tour company has busses it runs over the tops to get to the sound. By now it was raining steadily and the clods were low over the hills. The bus clawed its way up to the pass, but the views into the valler were still extremeily impressive. This was the valley of the River Spey (Scottish influnece here!) You could not see the tops of the mountains but it gave you the impression that the valley sides went up for ever! The bus clawed its way up to the top and then had an even steeper descent the other side. Here the waters of Doubtful sound came into view.

Unlike Milford, which is a simple fiord, Doubtful is a complex of many side arms, adjoining other fiords and islands. The stretch of water which you first see is just one of them. Because the system is so complex it really needs an overnight trip to even begin to appreciate it. On arrival at the jetty we joined the boat. This is a brand new, purpose built, state of the art vessel which accomodates up to 70 people in a range of rooms from private en-suite to four bunk dorms for those of us in steerage. It has a large dining area and lounges.

However, as it is now 8.15 pm and hotmail is getting a bit recalcitrant (I have had to retype many paragraphs of this) I am afriad I am going to have to leave you in suspense until Part 3!!

Cheers

Phil

PS. For the geography experts amongs you, yes these are NOT sounds, but Fiords. However the misnaming has stuck and all the fiords here are called sounds!!