Fiordlands National Park, NZ

Fiordlands National Park is the Southwest portion of the South island and consists of many trails and 14 beautiful fiords (which they incorrectly call sounds), the most known is Milford Sounds. The size of the park is massive (1.25 million hectares) but there are only 2 towns to stay in and they are a couple hours drive from Milford Sounds. I stayed in Te Anu the first couple nights. When I arrived in the afternoon, I headed out for a beautiful walk along Te Anu lake (the largest lake in the South island). As usual there were mountains in my view and the cleanest clearest water everywhere I looked. New Zealand sure is beautiful. I had a lot of fun playing with this duck who was trying desperately to get his head through the gate to get at fresh clovers, so I would pluck handfuls from around the area and drop them nearby where he could reach. I also saw 2 other birds native to this area the Takahe and Pukeko. They look very similar but one has a larger beak.

The next day I woke up early to head out on a day long tour to and in Doubtful Sounds, the 2^nd largest and deepest fiord in this area. It takes quite a bit to get to the fiord which is what makes it so great, it is basically untouched. We drove to the town of Manapouri which was stunning as there were low clouds/fog and beautiful pinks from the sunrise. We then boarded a boat (there was about 80 in our group) and crossed Lake Manapouri, which like the fiord had mountains towering all around. At the end of the boat ride we fought off hundreds of sand flies to board a 40 minute windy and beautiful bus ride through the mountains to the fiord itself. We stopped for a quick photo of the fiord at the top of the mountain.

Once arriving we were boarding another boat and off on a 3+ hour boat tour with stunning scenery. I don’t really have a lot to say about the cruise, the pictures speak for themselves. I was glad that a girl from my hostel, Julie, was on the same tour so we hung out together through the day.

I was quite lucky, as it was an unusually calm day allowing us to go all the way to the Tasman Sea (part of the Pacific Ocean), something they have only been able to do 4 times this year and they said we made it the furthest. This also allowed us to visit a colony of seals who live near the entrance to the fiord. Along the way we also had a rare sighting of the Fiordland crested penguin, the 2^nd rarest penguin in the world. The below crappy picture that looks like a duck is said penguin. Hard to tell but it’s the only one I got as he kept popping up just long enough to take a breath.

The next day I took the two hour bus ride to Milford Sounds where there is a small lodge you can stay at. The bus stopped at Mirror Lakes which I loved photographing. We also stopped at The Chasm which is hard to see from the photos but is a steep and narrow waterfall that has carved the rock smooth and then is lit up with the most beautiful blue colors. I got a great tip from my tourguide the day before about a secret swim hole that you can get to at this stop. I cut off the path where she advised and had this amazing turquoise swim hole to myself. Too bad I didn’t have time for a swim.

I headed out that afternoon for a kayak and hiking tour. We spent a few hours kayaking in the Milford Sound which was just stunning. The largest peak, Mitre Peak, is almost a mile high and just towered above us. We also did a bit of nature walking on the famous great walk, Milford Trek where the sandflies were awful but the scenery was worth it. In the end, I still have to favor the fiords in Bergen Norway, which is likely because I had some of the stillest waters they have ever experienced while there, but having said that the fiords here in New Zealand are amazingly beautiful in their own right.