Southland and Fiordland

[tcpip]

Following caseopaya's suggestion we took the southern scenic route rather than cross-country across central Otago. It's a little longer, but a lot more impressive. The journey starts in Clutha country (which we call, unsurprisingly, Cthulhu country) and then into the Catlins, hugging the south coast of the South Island, an area especially rich in greenery (podocarps, rimu, kahikatea, silver beech, numerous ferns), and howling powerful winds at lookout points from the Southern Ocean.

Lunch was at the Southland Museum and Art Gallery in Invercargill, my birth town. There is not too much to say about Invercargill; it has a few fine old buildings, wide streets, a Scottish heritage and accent, and superb gardens, but it's mainly a service town for surrounding farms. The museum is very good, the art gallery just terrible, but the main attraction is grumpy old Henry, the tuatara.

From Invercargill it was more southern coastline journeys with more wild lookouts until reaching Manapouri, the edge of Fiordland, for an overnight stay at the Lakeside Motor Lodge, which comes with just stunning views. After this it was a short journey to Te Anau downs (about 30km north of the main town) as a launching spot for Milford Sound ventures. We took several trips along the roadside of this world famous national park with its dense foilage and extraordinary mountains, including Lake Mistletoe, Lake Gunn, Mirror Lakes, and the numerous lookouts. We also took a cruise on Milford Sound, a place of astounding beauty, certainly one of the best in the world. We spotted numerous fur seals and bottle-nosed dolphins and I managed to get absolutely drenched whilst assisting the ship collecting water from one of the more prominent waterfalls that come off the cliffs.

I leave it to Douglas Adams to explain:

Fiordland, a vast tract of mountainous terrain that occupies the south-west corner of South Island, New Zealand, is one of the most astounding pieces of land anywhere on God's earth, and one's first impulse, standing on a cliff top surveying it all, is simply to burst into spontaneous applause.

- Douglas Adams, Last Chance to See

After a couple of days there, we left for Queenstown, having an afternoon at nearby Arrowtown and catching Peter Caulton playing at the local park. Our journey finished with a tour of the impressive Kiwi Birdlife Park, home of some of the rarest birds in the world (although I take issue with their claim that the tuatara is a dinosaur).

Comments

[delphipsmith]

Cthulhu country, yay! I would have guessed a podocarp was a kind of fish :)

"one's first impulse, standing on a cliff top surveying it all, is simply to burst into spontaneous applause."

Douglas Adams is so great.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

> I would have guessed a podocarp was a kind of fish

Which would be delightfully appropriate :)

> Douglas Adams is so great.

I'm assuming it was him, the book was co-authored by Mark Carwardine. This said, I do like Douglas Adams, although some people didn't quite think it as amusing as I did when, after his demise, I suggested he was spending a year dead for tax reasons.

[delphipsmith]

Ha!! I bet he would have appreciated that :)

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

I think he would have. From interviews and writings he struck me as the sort of person who didn't mind a little bit of macabre self-referential humour.

Hmmm.. Which spurs me to remember to do something for Towel Day on May 25..