HIKING AND BIKING IN NEW ZEALAND, Part 3: Guest Post by Cathy Mayone

New Zealand, Milford Sound

Over the Christmas holidays, my niece and her husband, Cathy and Mike Mayone, spent two weeks in New Zealand, driving, biking and hiking on both the North and South Island, enjoying the southern hemisphere summer and New Zealand's unique landscape. I thank Cathy for sharing their trip with The Intrepid Tourist. For more about their biking experiences, you can go to her blog .

Queenstown

Part 3:  New Zealand’s South Island Alps, Lakes and Fiords

As our airplane approached Queenstown, we marveled at the surrounding snow-capped mountains.  As we procured our rental car, the agent casually said, “Oh, you are lucky to have landed. They often divert to Christchurch due to the weather.”  Having heard about the terrible floods that had been ravaging the South Island in the prior weeks, I had been monitoring the weather and relieved that we had some partly sunny days ahead of us.  Given the unforeseen weather, I had also kept our itinerary loosely planned for our five days in Queenstown, which makes for a great home base for many of the South Island’s sites.

Otago Wine Trail

We rented bikes in the old historic town of Arrowtown.  Its buildings reminded me of Colorado’s Old Western towns.  Upon hiring (as they say, rather than renting) the bikes, we didn’t get very far since the Farmer’s Market was just coming to life.  Once on our way, we headed to the Otago Wine Trail that follows a creek to the larger river and gorge.  The highlights of this trail include two suspension bridges we had to cross, one of which was quite long.  The trick is to not look down and not have too many people the bridge at once!  

Kawarau Gorge suspension bridge

We also came to the Kawarau Gorge Suspension Bridge, the world famous, original bungie jumping site.  Seeing even the most fearful people give it a go, it was tempting, but the vineyards were beckoning us.  The vineyards are all right along the trail so we stopped at a couple of them before turning around for the return.

Drive to Milford Sound

We picked one of our sunniest days to go to Te Anau and the Milford Sound.  Your options are to fly, bus, or drive from Queenstown, with some tours providing combination fly/bus/cruise day trip options.  It’s a two hour drive to Te Anau, and then another two hours to Milford Sound.  We seriously considered the expensive flying option, but determined there were too many things we wanted to see along the way.  Mike was up for driving, so call us crazy, but we did a day trip, stopping in the small lake town of Te Anau in both directions for a break.  The beautiful landscape kept us occupied the whole trip, and the road into Milford Sound cuts through a tunnel rather than having too many hairy turns, so the driving was more manageable than anticipated. 

Milford Sound cruise

Once in Milford Sound, we took Cruise Milford’s two hour “boutique” cruise, which was a smaller boat advertised not to be filled to capacity.  It is recommended that you book in advance during the high season, as it would be a shame to show up in Milford Sound and not be able to get a cruise.  Also, there are not many eating options in Milford Sound, so plan for picnic food.  The other tip is to avoid the $10 / hour parking that is closest to the cruise docks and do the free parking / shuttle that is near the airport, making sure you allow enough time.

Milford Sound waterfall

The cruise does a loop on Milford Sound going down on one side to the opening of the Tasman Sea and back on the other side.  The greenish-blue Sound waters contrasted beautifully with the steep, snow-capped mountains abundant with waterfalls.  The boat even went up under some of the waterfalls, giving advance warning to those who did not want to get wet! 

Lupines

We made several stops along the way in and out of Milford Sound such as Mirror Lake, and to take pictures in the fields of lupines--the beautiful, pink and purple flowers that bloom all over New Zealand in the summer.  We arrived back in Queenstown around 10 pm at night, just as the sky was turning to night.  (New Zealand summer days (December) are filled with long daylight hours, making this day trip more doable.)

For a shorter day trip from Queenstown we did the 90 minute drive over to Lake Wanaka.  It was one of the busier lakes with swimmers, kayakers, jet skiers, boaters, and parasailers.  Tired from our previous two days, we kept it simple with a beach take-out lunch and a lakeside walk.  Plus, we needed to conserve our energy to stay up for the New Year’s Eve Queenstown activities.  After happy hour on our balcony, we walked down into town around 7 pm when we heard the music begin.  There were local bands playing to an enthusiastic, mostly middle age with children crowd.  We found it to be a very “sane” New Year’s celebration but perhaps it was still early.  We headed back to our AirB&B for dinner and balcony viewing of the fireworks at midnight, and we wished our family and friends a Happy New Year 18-21 hours before the U.S. would celebrate.

Mount Cook Visitor Centre

We kept New Year’s Day, a partly rainy day, even simpler and opted for a walk around Queenstown, including Queenstown Gardens.  The next day, we headed out for the last part of our trip, driving two hours to Twizel, and then another 40 minutes past Twizel to Mount Cook, New Zealand’s highest peak.  We oriented ourselves at the wonderful Aoraki Mount Cook National Park Visitor Centre. 

Hooker Valley track

Having fallen in love with New Zealand’s suspension bridges, the Hooker Valley 5 km fairly flat track afforded us with three bridges leading us to Hooker Glacier Lake and closer views of Mount Cook.

Hooker Valley hike destination with view of Mount Cook

Back in Twizel, we checked into our AirB&B, slightly different accommodations, as it’s a true B&B in the home of its owners with a farm of three sheep, two young cows, and chickens. Our balcony looked out onto the fields where a Lord of the Rings battle took place. Twizel and the surrounding areas are known for their bright star viewing. With the long days, we were too tired to wait for the pitch black sky but we left the curtain ajar for a quick peak when we awoke in the middle of the night. Twizel, and so many towns we encountered in New Zealand, made us feel like we were returning to a time in the U.S. pre-Big Box stores and Amazon Prime. The towns still have the locally owned hardware and clothing stores, pharmacies, and bakeries.

Lupines and Lake Pukaki

We perhaps saved the best for last with our final bike ride, the Alps 2 Ocean ride, which is one of New Zealand’s 22 great rides.  From Twizel, we rode through the middle of wide open pastures with views of the mountains.  And then we reached Lake Pukaki, with its stunning turquoise blue water juxtaposed with the white capped Aoraki (Mount Cook).  It looked even more stunning on this day now that the Australian bushfire haze had dissipated.  We rode the trail around the lake until the trail ended, ate a picnic lunch, and then did the return trip to Twizel.

Our time had come to make the final drive to Christchurch to catch our plane home.  We left New Zealand wondering why we had never had it on our bucket list. Its people, beaches, mountains and activities afforded us a lifetime of memories and a reminder why we travel.

Related articles and links:

For more information about New Zealand’s amazing Great Rides cycling initiative and an in depth look at all of our New Zealand biking adventures, visit my “Great Riding” articles on my Swim Bike Run Survive blog.

For an in depth look at the Milford Sound, check out Owen Floody’s three part series.

Our South Island accommodations included:

Queenstown – 5 nights in a large apartment with lake views

Twizel – 2 nights in a B&B with small farm

NEW ZEALAND's FIORDLAND: Part 3, Cruise on Milford Sound, Guest Post by Owen Floody

View of the fiords from a helicopter

Our friend Owen Floody did a trekking and photo tour of New Zealand's South Island this past fall (the Southern Hemisphere spring.)  Owen recently retired from a career of teaching and research at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania. He has always been an avid photographer and in his retirement has taken numerous trips that allow him to pursue his passion. Here is the third part of a short reflection on his trip to New Zealand and some of his excellent photographs.

At the end of my trekking, I wandered Queenstown for a day before returning to Fiordland with Real Journeys for a 7-day Discovery Cruise on the 32-passenger Milford Wanderer.  Getting to our departure point required us to travel by bus from Queenstown to Manapouri, by boat across Lake Manapouri, and again by bus from the lake to Deep Cove, at the eastern end of Doubtful Sound.  Upon boarding, we settled into our cabins, met our 6-person crew, learned about the ship's safety features, and soon began to sail westward along beautiful Doubtful Sound.  What makes this and the other fiords so appealing?  Common features include steep high rock walls that somehow manage to support vegetation resembling a vertical rainforest, a plethora of tall waterfalls, and a complex, often very colorful, shoreline.   

Eventually I realized that the colonization of the walls by trees and other plants depends on the presence of thick mats of moss that can be very attractive and so continued to catch my eye the rest of the cruise.  We did not see a lot of wildlife, but possible sightings include whales, dolphins, seals, Fiordland-crested or blue penguins, and many species of seabirds.

Having sailed the length of Doubtful Sound, we reached the Tasman Sea and turned southwest to parallel the Fiordland coast.  Upon arriving at Breaksea Sound, we followed it westward to a protected cove where we anchored for our first night, consistent with a pattern in which the ship always stopped moving whenever we were eating or sleeping.

Though much of our time was spent enjoying the views of one after another fiord (Doubtful, Breaksea and Dusky Sounds, Chalky and Preservation Inlets) as we cruised, this was broken up by two-per-day landings.  These gave us the opportunity to stretch our legs on short hikes.  Some  included stretches of rainforest resembling those from my treks.   

Others took us along lovely beaches or to overlooks (e.g., the lighthouse at Puysegur Point) with impressive views.  But many landings revolved around more historical themes.  As this part of New Zealand was explored by Captain James Cook in 1769-1775, we were able to visit several sites that figured importantly in these voyages (e.g., Astronomers Point).  Similarly, as Fiordland experienced a flurry of gold mining in 1893-1910, we frequently encountered the remnants of mines or mining settlements. 

Fragment of stamp battery in former mining settlement

Other options for exploration were provided depending on conditions and our location.  For instance, poking along the shore in the ship's motorboat was a common activity that permitted the close inspection of otherwise inaccessible shorelines.  When the conditions were ideal, most passengers piled into one or another of the ship's nearly 30 kayaks, for self-directed and even closer looks at the coastal rock formations and vegetation.

Finally, a very special aspect of the cruise occurred at its end.  Those of us who hadn't studied our itineraries were surprised to find ourselves far from our final destination (the West Arm of Lake Manapouri) early on the seventh and last day.  And yet no one seemed anxious to get the ship moving northward.  This is because the master plan was for us to be picked up by helicopter in Preservation Inlet, compressing the return trip to 20-30 minutes of spectacular flight over the fiords.  What a fantastic climax to the trip this proved to be!  In building this feature into our trip, as indeed in all aspects of the cruise, I felt that Real Journeys did an excellent job of caring for and exposing us to the wonders of Fiordland.

NEW ZEALAND's FIORDLAND: Part 2, Milford Track and Routeburn Track, Guest Post by Owen Floody

Milford Sound, New Zealand, South Island

Our friend Owen Floody did a trekking and photo tour of New Zealand's South Island this past fall (the Southern Hemisphere spring.)  Owen recently retired from a career of teaching and research at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania. He has always been an avid photographer and in his retirement has taken numerous trips that allow him to pursue his passion. Here is the second part of a short reflection on his trip to New Zealand and some of his excellent photographs.
 
From Dunedin, I drove west to Queenstown, and there the real fun began.  The next week I spent under the wings of Ultimate Hikes, pursuing a Classic package of treks including the Milford and Routeburn Tracks.  A central fact regarding Fiordland is that this is a very wet place.  For example, rain can fall at Milford Sound on 200 days a year, depositing up to 10 inches of rain per fall and as much as 23 feet over the course of a year.  To hike in this environment, you must be prepared for rain.  In addition, it's nice to have a support team that knows how to deal with rain, flooded trails, and wet hikers.  Ultimate Hikes managed all of this wonderfully.  For example, all of their lodges are equipped with facilities for the hand-washing of one's clothes immediately after a hike, eliminating any need to deal with the wet by hauling pounds of clothing.  The lodges combined this feature with the availability of large drying rooms, permitting a single change of clothing to be used repeatedly.  In these and other respects, I thought that the support of my treks by Ultimate Hikes was exemplary and well worth the cost.

The Milford Track is one of the world's most famous treks.  It extends over five days, though most of the hiking is concentrated in the middle three.  On each of these, one must be able to hike for 10-13 miles in 4-10 hours.  There are some elevation changes, but nothing extreme.  Most of these are concentrated on the approach to and descent from Mackinnon Pass, at approximately 3500 feet.

A large fraction of the trek passes through beech-dominated rainforests.  At times, you break out of the forest into a clearing, where you can be confronted with 4000 foot tall rock walls, often covered by an intricate pattern of waterfalls.  

The most expansive views, however, are those from Mackinnon Pass.  It was never possible to take in such a view without being amazed at the number, depth and beauty of the glacial valleys that dominate this landscape.  Nevertheless, I think that I most enjoyed the opportunity to walk for hours through forests of a sort that would be nearly impossible to see anywhere else.

Considering our ultimate destination, it's fitting that my first trek ended with a cruise on famous Milford Sound.  And before that, we had the opportunity to view Sutherland Falls, the fifth tallest falls in the world at 1904 feet.  It creates an impressive multi-sensory experience, combining powerful blasts of water and air (alas, too much for photos), a volume of sound like that of nearby jet engines, and the sight of the falls disappearing into the mist above your head.  

After completing the Milford Track, I moved on to the Routeburn Track.  This is a shorter trek, extending over three days, each involving a hike 6-9 miles over 3-8 hours.  Whereas the Milford most impressed me with its rainforests, the Routeburn earned points for its varied landscapes.  It, too, takes you through some beautiful beech-dominated rainforests, especially on the first and third days.   

But nearly all of the second day is spent above the tree line, crossing the Hollyford Face on the way to the Harris Saddle.  This traverse offered some spectacular mountain views.  It also exposed us to some interesting weather, with one day divided into periods of clear, rain, sleet, hail, and snow.  Fortunately, we had been warned that Fiordland weather is changeable and wet!  My other highpoint on the Routeburn was a similar, but small, part of the first day's hike.  This took us to and around a nature trail on Key Summit.  Again, we enjoyed the winning combination of attractive rocks, vegetation and ponds in the foreground with beautiful views of more distant mountains and valleys. 

(Continued  next week: Part 3: Cruise on Milford Sound)