Milford Sound to Westport

The morning after my glowworm cave excursion, we left the Te Anau holiday park fairly early, in order to take a look at a local bird refuge. The refuge was free to visit and even featured some cycling paths throughout, allowing bikers to pass through it on a route around the shore of Lake Te Anau. Though a fairly small park, the price was certainly right, and it enabled my first good view of the Takahe, a beautiful local bird once thought to be completely extinct before some of the last remaining birds were found in the local Fiordland region. Now, with careful and diligent conservation efforts, the Takahe is found in the wild and in bird sanctuaries around the country. We also saw a Kaka, one of New Zealand’s incredible local parrots, a Paradise Duck, and a number of New Zealand Parakeets that were very active that morning. Seeing all of these new birds was quite impressive, and I was glad that the refuge wasn’t too big, as we wanted to leave before noon in order to reach Milford Sound, where we had a boat tour booked at 3 pm. After a quick breakfast including my first-ever hot cross bun, we started off along the only road into Milford Sound.

At first, the road traveled along the side of Lake Te Anau, then cut through the forest into the base of the Eglinton Valley, an incredible U-shaped valley that instantly reminded me of Yosemite back in California. In the valley, we stopped at Mirror Lakes, a small turnoff with beautiful reflective pools where I was lucky enough to see a beautiful Fantail bird land and perform its eponymous display. We continued up the valley and into a forest as the road crept upwards and silver waterfalls began to appear along the near-vertical canyon walls. Moving along winding roads, every turn seemed to reveal an even more beautiful view and I had to stop over and over just to take in and photograph the incredible views. Driving through light rain, we passed hundreds of small cascades on the canyon walls and didn’t even have to brave the elements. I can confidently say it was one of the most breathtaking drives I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing, and I highly recommend it if you get the chance. Near the end, the road cuts directly through a sheer pass by way of the Homer Tunnel, more than a kilometer of single-lane road that opens up onto a magnificent view of the dramatic topography making up the sound. On this side, as we worked our way down to the visitor center and our boat reservation, the sky revealed beautiful blue and sunshine for the first time that day. After lunch at the visitor center, we checked in for our boat ride and admired the views until it was time to leave the berth. The boat ride was also incredible, making its way over submerged glacial valleys with smaller ones visible on the canyon walls. Numerous waterfalls of all sizes, though considerably fewer than there are during the rain, were visible splashing down into the waiting fiord (it turns out the actual waterway isn’t even a sound!). We saw numerous birds I couldn’t identify feeding in the protected waters, and NZ fur seals sunning on the nearby rocks. I was thrilled just to watch it all pass by and enjoy the truly unique scenery. After we returned to land, we elected to leave fairly quickly in hopes of being able to get dinner back in Te Anau before the shops all closed. Still beautiful and with the occasional stop to savor, the drive back left me feeling a little sad that I had to leave such a wonderful place, and already longing to see it again someday. We finished the evening with a tasty Chinese dinner and then retired to our beds in preparation for a big drive the following day.

Much of the next day was spent on the 6+ hour drive from Te Anau to Fox Glacier, a west coast town named after a nearby temperate glacier. There were of course numerous beautiful views along the way, which I tried to appreciate despite the long day of driving ahead. Our only substantial stop for the day was in the tourist capital of Queenstown, where we struggled to find parking but eventually managed to do so, and visit a kiwi (and other rare bird) park towards the edge of town. With a maximum of 2 hours in our parking space and more than 4 hours from our destination for the day, we rushed a little through the park. Nonetheless, we got the opportunity to see Keas, the famously intelligent alpine parrot of New Zealand, numerous rare ducks and parakeets, and of course made lots of time to visit the kiwis in a special darkened enclosure. As they are nocturnal, the kiwi house had its day/night cycle flipped so tourists would be able to see them at their most active, and luckily we did! They are quite light-sensitive so we were not allowed to take photos or even use phones in the building, but I got to be within a few feet, opposite glass, of multiple kiwis running around their enclosure foraging for bugs and other food in old logs and dirt brought from the outside forest. They were so unlike any bird I have ever seen! It is truly impressive to see what millenia of mostly mammal-free evolution allowed to develop in this part of the world. Too soon, but glad to have made the stop, we continued on our path to Fox Glacier, arriving well after dark and happy to have finished another long drive.

In the morning, we had a beautiful and clear day. Wanting to explore the local glacier country, we took a drive to the far side of town for an incredible view of Mt Cook, the tallest mountain in all of New Zealand and part of an imposing range known as The Southern Alps. After a nice breakfast at the local cafe, I took a quick walk to the nearby Lake Matheson, where I got to see even more beautiful nature, in particular some local blue mushrooms (quite rare for fungi!) that really impressed me. Not wanting to make my grandmother wait for too long, I returned to the car and we made the short drive over to the Franz Josef glacier, the other temperate maritime glacier in the area. We both managed a quick walk along the glacial valley, visiting a viewing platform and taking in more stunning scenery. Though wonderful, the entire glacier experience was colored by several photos documenting the gradual (and accelerating) retreat of the ice back up its valley. Ultimately, I feel very lucky to have seen it when I did! Much of the rest of the day was spent driving, with a short stop for ice cream and a South African lunch in the town of Hokitika. We had one more brief sightseeing excursion to the so-called “Pancake Rocks” right off of the road– a beautiful and distinct rock formation. When we arrived in Westport for the night, we discovered our backpacker’s hotel in a beautiful old house, complete with a movie room, several friendly pets, and even some old and fading props from the Lord of The Rings (or so said our proprietor, if anyone recognizes the particular throne pictured please let me know, I haven’t been able to place it!) With time to spare and a wonderful kitchen available to us, my grandmother was excited to cook dinner. I of course obliged her and we had another wonderful meal with local lamb and kumara, a popular NZ root vegetable similar to the sweet potato. After doing the dishes and petting the cat, I was more than happy to move toward bed for the evening, with another great day lying ahead.

Updating this to include the chair photo I mentioned! Sorry for the oversight, and thanks to my dad for pointing it out.