Into the Fjordlands

Our next stop, Te Anau, is a place we would call home in a heartbeat (and there is a charming restaurant for sale…hmmmm).

A beautiful drive—although most of them are—started Wednesday morning. Leaving the Fjordlands temporarily, we went through rolling hills covered in sheep. And lambs. And more sheep. There are about six times more sheep than people in New Zealand, and I’m not exaggerating.

Then back into the mountains. We checked into a mom and pop motel, and still had time for a hike. Tom is generally in charge of hiking routes and he picked a doozy. We went about eight miles round trip to Moturau hut on the Kepler track, through a forest covered with moss, and bursting with ferns. It starts with a river and flowing streams and ends at a beach on the lake. It was stunning. (And stinging – we “discovered” sandflies on this hike, too.) We are quickly running out of words to accurately describe what we’ve been seeing.

Ferns love the wet conditions along the track
Springtime in the mountains
The woods were otherworldly in places
Mossy “forest sponges” were everywhere
A “tall fellow” along the track

Most of our activities are self-planned and self-paced. But the next day, we had one of our few organized tours ahead—turns out it was worth every penny.

Our guide Jonathan picked up us with 10 other passengers and we launched out for Milford Sound. It isn’t really a “sound;” it is a fjord, but when it was first seen by Europeans that word was not in their vocabulary. It is where the mountains meet the Tasman Sea—and perhaps my favorite place yet.

The best part was our small tour started from Te Anau rather than Queenstown, so we were able to beat most of the crowds. That, and Jonathan was an amazing guide, making multiple stops all along the way to show us waterfalls, rivers and views not everyone had time for. Turns out he is really into birds as well, and surprised everyone by suddenly stopping, jumping out of the bus (after opening the main door) and showed us a family of Blue Theo’s ducks he spotted on the river. They are somewhat rare, and revered in New Zealand being featured on the $10 bill.

At the top of Lake Te Anau
Mirror Pond along the way to Milford
Spring snow melt had the streams flowing
Mitre Peak at Milford Sound
Mountain views from out on Milford Sound
More mountain views from the sound
Yup, lots of mountains
And waterfalls, too
Some pretty big!

Anyway, it was all really terrific. It wrapped up with dinner at the aforementioned restaurant, where I impulsively ordered the salmon. I’m not generally a big fan of fish, but as you can see from the photos, I rather liked it!