Herman and I have just returned from another world, or so it feels.
Our last two days in Queenstown were glorious, as Mother Nature decided to bring out her fall best: bright sunshine, cool temperatures and brilliant fall colors. We drove up to Glenorchy, an area of the South Island where most of “Lord of the Rings” was filmed. Much of the landscape is still undeveloped, though there were pockets of sheep and cows here and there, signifying farmers nearby.
On our last day in Queenstown (last Saturday), I took the cable car up to the highest point in the city to take in the view. Herman joined me after he hiked up the same route. On the way, we both noticed that a bungee jumping station had been set up among the trees. Bungee jumping is a very popular sport in New Zealand, though usually it’s set up above a body of water, which seems a little less insane than jumping off a tiny platform into a chasm of rocks and trees.
Sunday, we left the sunshine to drive to Te Anau, the closest town to the Fiordland National Park. The closer we got, the cloudier the sky became, and by the time we settled into our hotel, it had begun to rain and hasn’t stopped for more than a couple of hours since.
Due to the cold weather, we seriously considered cancelling the two-hour Milford Sound boat ride that we had scheduled. Almost 20 years ago, during our first trip to New Zealand, we had taken an overnight cruise on the Milford Sound, which is why we were unsure if the shorter trip would be worth it. Back then, we were passengers on a two-day, back-country trip in a 12-person bus that drove on a white gravel road through farmland and hills and dales before arriving at the Sound.
We had such a blast on that trip. The driver loved to tell jokes and make puns (since we were the only Americans on the bus, he joked about “fording” (as in the Ford car) streams. When it came time to stop for a snack, he filled a large pot with water from a nearby stream to boil for tea. When we stopped for lunch, we ate by a small lake with bell birds singing around us.
I should mention that the man drove like a bat out of hell. I was seated in the passenger seat beside him when the tire right under me blew. Fortunately, he managed to maneuver the vehicle to an upright stop by using the built-up berm on the side of the road. We all filed out of the bus to wait for him to change the tire. With lug wrench in hand, he proceeded to remove the lug nuts, but to no avail. After several more tries, he commissioned the rest of the male passengers to jump on a wrench extension to try and loosen the nuts, but they still wouldn’t budge. Since we were miles from civilization, his cell phone wouldn’t work, so he told us to wait while he jogged to the nearest farmhouse to call a tire service. An hour later, the service technician arrived, deftly removed the lug nuts and changed the tire. Our driver had been turning the wrench in the wrong direction! We teased our driver for the rest of the day, but he took it in good stride.
Anyway, back to the present. We decided not to let the rain deter our plans, so we headed toward Milford Sound. There is one great advantage to rain: waterfalls, hundreds of them around every corner! The most amazing sight, upon exiting a tunnel that ran through a mountainous area, was a 180-degree rock wall sprouting waterfalls wherever you looked. Herman is a great photographer, but we both agreed that pictures just can’t do this scenery justice. This level of majesty has to be experienced in person!
We arrived at the Milford Sound boat terminal along with four buses of tourists. I feared that we would have to share a boat with hundreds of chattering, selfie photo-taking people, but fortunately, we had booked our trip with a smaller tour operator. Fortune smiled upon us a second time once the boat left the dock; the rain had stopped! We once again marveled at the scenery and the fur seals, even a couple of dolphins that swam alongside the boat (though I couldn’t see them except on Herman’s video, which was frustrating). The pilot gave us an up-close view of several waterfalls, which meant most of us were wet to varying degrees by the end of the trip. The sea “kissed” us several times, too, as we bobbed up and down across the water, but that’s half the fun, you know.
The next day we left Te Anau for Manapouri, a tiny village next to the boat terminal for the Doubtful Sound, where we would depart for an overnight trip. Since it was too early to check in to our land hotel, we drove around the area, taking a detour on a gravel road to a small lake, where Herman discovered red cap mushrooms that looked like throwbacks to the 1960s or something artificial like you might see at Disneyland’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarves ride. They’re called fly agarics, and we’ve been told they’re poisonous.
By the time we checked into our hotel, the rain had returned with a vengeance. There was a sign posted at the reception desk, saying that the Doubtful Sound day trips had been cancelled due to road closures. Strangely enough, the overnight trips were not affected, even though the rain pounded the roof above our heads that night.
Equipped with layers of clothing, a lined jacket, scarf, mittens and knitted cap, I waited with Herman to board the first boat for a tour of Lake Manapouri, then a bus that would take us along a winding back road to the wharf, where we would board the boat for the overnight trip across the Doubtful Sound. Of course, to no one’s surprise, the rain had washed out the road that led to the wharf, so we were forced to take tender boats out to the ship.
Now, I don’t have the best history with tender boats. The one we took back from the Falkland Islands to a cruise ship in 2011 was close to flooding due to high waves created by a nearby hurricane (and that’s its own story for another time). Then there was the tender boat used during our Galapagos Islands trip, where I couldn’t get my feet transferred from the rubber raft to the boat deck and ended up hanging like a bridge over the water while the deck crew held onto my arms, trying to pull me in. It gives one quite a complex. With some help, I managed to struggle on and off again once we reached the boat.
The last time we did an overnight tour, the boat was fairly basic, and everyone slept in the bowels of the ship, in one big room with beds separated by drapes. It was kind of amusing because you could hear people snoring in various keys of sound and vibrato, and it left you with a comforting sense of community. This time, we booked a private cabin, and I must say for such a small ship, it was quite luxurious. There was only one small problem. The bed’s height came up to my waist. Considering that the bed took up most of the space from any direction, the thought of trying the long jump or a pole vault to leap onto the mattress was out of the question. Once I clambered onto the bed, I had to think long and hard before getting off again.
The trip through the Sound, as you can imagine, was amazing. The mist, the rain, the silence, the waterfalls; all of these things added to the magic that is New Zealand. We had a group of 45 high school students with us, but they were reasonably well behaved for their age and didn’t disturb the atmosphere. During the trip, we saw rainbows, even double rainbows, and not just one of each! The most exciting moment came the next morning as we were leaving our overnight mooring spot. A pod of 10 dolphins rode the ship’s wave for a good 30 minutes, occasionally leaping in the air to our delight. I watched them until, due to the cold, I couldn’t feel my fingers anymore.
Since our hotel in Manapouri was not to our liking, we decided to leave for Invercargill right after we returned from the boat trip. Back on the road, we were still bedeviled with rain, though we had high hopes that it was beginning to dry out. Not! The closer we drove to Invercargill, the worse it got, and the wind picked up as well. You could see trees everywhere that had grown bent in half due to the force of the winds coming off the water.
We couldn’t find a last-minute hotel in Invercargill, so we booked one in Bluff, which really is at the most Southern part of the South Island and feels like you’re at the end of the world. With heads down against the wind and the rain, we struggled with minimal luggage up to the room, which of course, was up some stairs. Later, upon our return from the restaurant next door, we stumbled on foot through the rain up the driveway, where I had a fit of hysterical laughter, and then the stairs.
Friday morning, we drove up to the lookout over Bluff and stopped to take in the view. The wind was blowing so hard (harder than what we experience at the Franz Josef Glacier) that we feared our car might really blow over this time. I wish I could say that the weather has improved, now that we’re in our three-night apartment in Invercargill, but it’s still blustery outside (and it just hailed). Today, March 21, is a Netflix day. The weather report says Sunday should be cloudy and dry. Monday, we leave for Dunedin, where we expect a much better level of accommodation (can’t wait!) and dryer/warmer weather.
Trambling 
Have I missed something? Your post is dated March 5th and you speak of today being March 21st? I knew New Zealand is a day plus 6 hours different from the U.S., but I didn’t know it was over a MONTH different!
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My goodness, y’all have had more than your share of rain and wind and washed out roads on this trip. Love your sense of humor through it all. As always, I love your tales and Herman’s photos!!!!
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I second that—love your tales. You make me giggle especially when you recount your human bridge story!
Have I missed a post? This one is a month old?
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Hey Vicki, I don’t think you’ve missed anything. The date has to do with how I’m organizing the blog posts. It’s an imperfect system at the moment that I’ve had neither the time or the energy to fix. Eventually, I’ll overhaul the site, but for now, this is the only way I can post the blogs.
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Epic. Keep ‘em coming and stay dry. Ha!
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