Fiordland and a day without rain. Yippee!

We arrived in Te Anua, the gateway to Firordland in the southern Alps, in absolutely freezing cold weather. The wind here can be something else as there is nothing to stop it roaring around the planet with only a tiny bit of South America to slow it down. It's a long way from here to there. We are firmly  in the 'roaring forties' domain. The drive to get to Te Anua from Arrowtown though short at 200kms, was grey and dreary with much rain and even some hail. We had to imagine how magnificent the views would have been without the clouds. 

What a difference a day makes. This morning was clear and frosty with sunlight dancing on the lake. It didn't last, but it was warmer and less cloudy than the previous day. Many of us chose to set off early to visit Doubtful Sound.  Much larger, more remote and with far fewer visitors than Milford Sound. 

We drove a scant 20kms to the shores of Lake Manipouri, hopped on a boat, travelled across the lake for an hour, and then were taken by bus across a mountain to get on another boat for a three hour trip along the sound and out a short way into the Tasmin Sea.

The road traversing the mountain at Wilmot Pass is the only stretch of road in New Zealand that is not connected to the rest of the road network. It was built, in the 60's, to facilitate the development of an underground hydro- electric power plant. Everything has to arrive by boat, including the weekly fuel tanker. The area is renowned for having several earthquakes a day, most of no significance.  But one, a few years ago, was large enough to lift a whole mountain by 30 cms. 

It is also an area of exceptionally heavy rainfall. It averages 8 metres a year.  8 metres! On one occasion 12 inches of rain fell in 10 hours causing landslides and a whole new river to be formed. 

It was all great fun. The scenery was surreally, majestically beautiful and it felt, as indeed it is, raw, wild, rugged and untouched. It is home to Dolphins, seals, penguins and occasional whales. Not that we saw much; seals and apparently a penguin - not that I saw that, sadly.  At one point the Captain turned the engines off and we bobbed about in total silence with just a myriad of birdsong in the air. Magical.

The fiord was flat calm, of course, but when we went out into the Tasmin Sea it became a little rough. It can get very, very rough but today it was not to be.   As I've said before, I love a bit of rocking and rolling in a boat so it was a bit gentle for me. I'm sure others were relieved. 

The people who had gone to Milford Sound equally enjoyed it. Alastair took his 98 year old mum, the lovely Dorothy, up in a helicopter to view the fiords. What a woman! *

Tomorrow we go right down to the very bottom of South Island before turning back north on the eastern side. 

*note to my two sons, Henry and George: when I am in my nineties, I not only want you to take me on rallies, now, I will need a helicopter ride too.