Back on the water

Sunday 25th - Friday 30th October 2009

Two and a half weeks into our trip, we found ourselves back in the wet and wonderful Fiordlands (which is where we left off back in April.) After 3 days on the Hump Ridge Track, we felt we deserved a much needed treat (well, OK, I felt I needed a much needed treat!) so we got ourselves a cute little cabin at what felt like a fairly remote place called Freestone Backpackers in Manapouri. We holed ourselves up there for a couple of days in the rain with a roaring pot bellied stove, and when the rain cleared we discovered that we had a beautiful view over Lake Manapouri. We even managed to find a great Sunday roast for $12 each - about £5.50 (Deb, you'll be glad to know, it certainly wasn't a 'mini roast', it was a decent feast!)

Feeling clean and refreshed, we headed to Te Anau, the central town for trips into the fiords themselves (see previous blog entry back in April for a mini geography lesson on what a fiord is!) Our sole aim here was to get back on the water, this time on Doubtful Sound for a 2 day kayaking trip where we would camp "in the wilderness" as the brochure put it.*

To get ourselves in the mood for the breath-taking scenery that we were about to see, we took ourselves off to the local cinema to watch "Ata Whenua - Shadowlands" - it's a film with some incredible and beautiful camera work all taken from a helicopters-eye view, taking you through the seasons in the Fiordlands. To make the experience even more enjoyable you get to sit back and relax in a big comfy seat with the tipple of your choice (a glass of wine NZ Pinot Gris and a bottle of local beer in our case!)

We were up bright and early the next day, and before we even set foot in a kayak, just getting out to Doubtful Sound was quite a trip. After standing round in a cold, wet carpark for half an hour at 6am (me dancing around like a loon to keep warm) thinking we'd been forgotten by the guides (which we had - they had to come back for us when they did a head count a couple of kilometres up the road!) we were finally on our way. After crossing Lake Manapouri in a big tourist boat all to ourselves (our group was nice and small just 8 of us with 2 guides), we got back into a van to cross over the Wilmot pass, an incredible feat of construction by man. We discovered that the road was only built to help with the construction of the Manapouri Underground Powerstation. It took 2 years to build the 20km road in the '60s as they had to carve through the mountain and bush up over the 2100 foot pass, plus it had to be fit to take bloody heavy lorries carrying construction gear. Luckily it wasn't a waste as it's now used by the likes of us tourists!

Anyhow, it being the coldest October that New Zealand has seen since the war we were blessed with a beautiful early morning snowy scene from the top of the pass looking right out across Doubtful Sound (which if you look at the pics we found to be snow-less when we drove back over the pass some 24 hours later!)

Once dressed in our full kayaking gear (where even the men get to wear a skirt!) and sitting in our kayaks we were able to enjoy the sights and sounds of the fiords once again from sea level. This time, much to our delight, we even managed to get up close with a couple of Fiordland Crested Penguin, one of which put on quite a show for us preening himself on a nearby rock.

You may have noticed that unfortunately we don't have any of our own photos of this little chap, this is because the waterproof camera is at the bottom of Doubtful Sound... Frank accidentally left it there after he became a bit peckish and decided to have a little snack whilst we were out on the water. Out came the snack from under the bungee rope on the top of the kayak, and 'plop', in went the camera to the bottom of the sea. We both heard the 'plop' and felt just a little bit sick as we looked into the water and saw nothing but a small ripple on top of the water.

It's a good job I bought the DVD of the film we watched the previous night to remind us of the views, plus thanks to the lovely people we met on the trip we have a few snaps to remember the trip (thanks Natalie and Frank for sending them through already!)

Cx

*Yes, this worried me more than a little bit, but I was pleasantly surprised when we got to the camp and I found that we did in fact have an insect tent to gather under to cook dinner and a toilet (albeit a long drop with thousands of flies in it!) Plus we were given a prime spot to pitch our tent - "high rise heaven" - a piece of hardboard, taking the tent about a foot off the ground!