Easily Amused: A Look Inside the Mind of a Wanderer: Winter Trip: Fjordland

From the Catlins we hightailed it west and then north to the mountain town of Te Anau ("Aw-now"). The plan was to hitch a ride on the tour bus from there northwards to Milford sound to check out Fjordland National Park. In short, with my meager writing skills, words and pictures can not even begin to describe the majesty of the mountains there. It is a place of presence with impossibly high cliffs (and I've been to Yosemite), cascading waterfalls and towering glacier carved peaks. We took the bus as everyone was warning us that the road would be too icy and there might be avalanche hazard. We probably would have been fine, as there was neither, but I might have driven off the road drooling over the big granitic walls and glacial cirques, so it is just as well.

Fjordland is a world heritage site called Te Wahipounamu (Maori for "the place of the green stone" which is common in these parts which they used extensively to make weapons and jewelry) and is the 5th largest National Park in the world. Many parts of it are almost completely inaccessible, such as remote doubtful sound. Therefore, Milford receives the bulk of the traffic. There are some beautiful trails here, but to tramp Milford track you have to book it up to 2 years in advance during peak season. The Department of conservation strictly regulates the number of through hikers.

They get an average of seven meters of rain per year in Milford, which for you Yanks that comes out to about 22 feet of precipitation. Vegetation grows out of ever nook and cranny on the vertical slopes, and waterfalls are everywhere. The southern beech trees knot their roots together to cling to life on the steep canyon walls, but water and avalanches manage to sweep them clean every once in a while. Then ecological progression starts anew, first with lichens, mosses, ferns and then finally a new hanging beech forest. The sounds are technically not sounds, they were just misnamed by early explorers. A sound is a geographic feature carved by anything except glaciers, so each is technically a Fjord. Getting back to the rainfall, we totally lucked out. We had nothing but clear skys the whole weekend. We took a fjord cruise and did some exploring along the river banks. Again, I can not even begin to describe how awe inspiring Fjordland is. Here are some of the hundreds of shots I took.

Look closely

Up high near the pass

The ever inquisitive Kea, the only mountain Parrot in the world. Some moron was feeding this dude bread. They apparently love to take rubber off of windshield wipers and car doors.