The South Island Road Trip: Part II: What's that Sound?

Kia Ora,

01/12/2014 - 04/12/2014   Te Anau
The drive to Te Anau was very nice, especially on the final approach as the mountain ranges of the Fiordland National Park came in to view. We shared this view with Gabriel, a German hitchhiker we picked up on the way.

On arrival it was hard to miss Lake Te Anau. It was on this lake me and Dannii took our second cruise. This time however, we got off on the other side of the lake and explored the glow worm caves. Glow worms are little larvae unique to NZ and live in very dark caves. They produce light to attract insects, which then get trapped in the glow worms sticky lines. But for us animals on the slightly larger side, they're not quite so dangerous and beautiful to look at.

Unfortunately, cameras weren't allowed in the cave, so here are some pictures we took on the way and a stolen image of the Te Anau glow worms to give you an idea of what they were like.

Picture of the glow worm cave network

Looking very photogenic on the ride out!

A stolen photo of the Te Anau glow worm caves

Roll on the second day of Te Anau, a big hitter for the best and most impressive day of the trip. The day began with a cruise over Lake Manapouri. This lake is second largest body of water in NZ and was amazing!

The calm Lake Manapouri

Tree's fossilised after being drowned in slow setting lava

But we weren't on another cruise just for Lake Manapouri. We were crossing to get to one of the most remote areas of NZ, Doubtful Sound. It was given its name by early explorers who determined that using the area as port would be (wait for it) "Doubtful". And a sound is essentially a fiord, just derived from a different word. Although the word comes from swim, as it is possible to swim from one side of the sound to the other. You see, this is fun and educational ;-)

Anyway, the positively reenforce any newly gained knowledge, enjoy some photos of the day!

We were all mesmorised by this trip. We were out for over seven hours and blessed with perfect weather, some seal spotting and a glimpse of one crested penguin. I think we all left inspired and in awe.

After the second sunrise in Te Anau the team assembled to tackle the Kepler track. Ideally we would have had three days free to conquer this and I'm a little sad we didn't, though I may end up revisiting the area. However, restricted to one day we just took a walk along Lake Manapouri through rainforest terrain.

The girls ;-)

04/12/2014 - 05/12/2014   Milford Sound
Our next destination was Milford Sound. We arrived in bad weather, which was a shame. So instead me, Pauline and Adele decided to walk a bit of the Routeburn track and turning off to Key Summit. The weather kindly cleared a bit so we got amazing views! We discovered that Key summit hosted a small nirvana. A lake on top the the mountain was watched over by other snow capped mountains.

And thankfully the weather continued to get better through the night. The next morning Milford treated us to to its beauty.

The route was littered with points of interest, far too many to keep stopping but all beautiful in their own way. Lake Gunn stood out on the return journey, the lake as still as someones career and the water as clear as the reflections were amazing. Observe:

The native Kea also blessed the route home. They were super curious about the cars traveling by them. I'm not sure, but I think I made a friend.

Lot's of photo's in this installment. We'll pick up the story again when we return to Queenstown.

And well done to the eagle eyed readers who noticed that my photo of the reflective lake (Lake Gunn) is actually upside down. Pretty cool, aye?

Kia Ora,

Ben