Fantastic fjords

The conclusion to the story of the road trip together with Juuso and Eeva:

On day 6 of the road trip (Monday 30 March) we left Queenstown and headed for Te Anau in Fiordland, a place very well known to myself and Giigan by then, since this was to be our third visit to the region. Giigan was the driver for the first hour of our journey, but as we'd cleared most signs of human habitation and only the stray possum was in any danger of becoming overrun, the driver seat was relinquished to Juuso, who had expressed his interest in experiencing what it's like to drive "on the wrong side of the road".

Later on, the steering wheel was commanded by Eeva, who didn't want to miss the opportunity either. For the second time since buying our green Bluebird, Giigan and I found ourselves in the back seat! We could have gotten used to it.

A slightly confused Eeva.

Arriving in Te Anau we quickly checked in to our hostel, the Rainbow Downs Barnyard Backpackers, which has become our usual place to stay in that region of NZ. We had a nice lunch at the Sandfly Cafe (luckily devoid of the little buggers) before having a competition at the nearby minigolf course. The loser had to buy a round of beer at the opposite Red Cliff Cafe (which contrary to its name actually is a terrific restaurant), and if memory serves right, the drinks were on Juuso. While enjoying the cold beers in the sunny weather we took the opportunity of playing petanque in the court at the back of the cafe. With an almost crushing victory, team Eeva/JBB disillusioned the cocky arrogance of team Juuso/Giigan. Högmod går före fall, as we say in Swedish.

In the evening we came back to the Red Cliff Cafe to have dinner, and what a dinner it was (we had dinner with Giigan's parents there too and it was just as good)! The Red Cliff serves delicious, distinctive food and possesses a warm, cozy atmosphere as well. No wonder some of the stars of the Lord of the Rings movies liked to dine there too!

Day 7 saw us going on a day trip to Milford Sound. Juuso and Eeva went on a cruise and afterward we all shared a picnic in the fantastic scenery and late afternoon sunshine.

Is there a better place for a picnic than this?

The next day we got to admire another fantastic fjord: Doubtful Sound. Giigan and I went on a day cruise, while Juuso and Eeva went on an overnight cruise. Both cruises depart from Manapouri, which is a small town 20 km south from Te Anau, and start with a cruise across the island-studded Lake Manapouri. At the Manapouri underground hydro power station you board a coach, which takes you on the Wilmot Pass road to Deep Cove. The day cruise includes a tour of the underground power station before the coach trip. The power station is very impressive. The coach drives down a spiraling vehicle access tunnel which is 2 km long until you're 200 metres below the surface of Lake Manapouri. The machine hall is deep inside the mountain and looks like something from a James Bond movie. There are seven generators each providing 121,5 MW of electricity. If you're interested in reading more about this fascinating hydro power station, go here.

After 22 km along the Wilmot Pass road we arrived at Deep Cove, the head of Doubtful Sound, located 40 km from the open sea. There we boarded our vessel for the three hour cruise on the fjord, which is about three times longer than Milford Sound. Doubtful Sound is in fact the second largest of the 14 fjords in the Fiordland National Park (Dusky Sound is the largest), and as we soon discovered, completely different compared to Milford Sound. Nonetheless immensely beautiful, but in a another way. Whereas the water of Milford Sound is surrounded by sheer, at times even vertical cliff faces, the overall look of Doubtful Sound is a lot more round and undulating. The fjord is also a lot broader and has three arms. Comparing the two fjords is, however, like comparing Salma Hayek and Ksenia Sukhinova. Sure, both are very beautiful, but a verdict can be nothing but subjective.

On the Doubtful Sound cruise.

The following day (Thu 2 April) we picked up Eeva and Juuso as they returned from their overnight cruise of the fjord and headed back to Queenstown. We had lunch at the Arrowtown Brewery in the former gold mining town Arrowtown just north of Queenstown. This time we stayed at the Garden Court Apartments in Queenstown; an option on par with our apartment accommodation in Wanaka.

Friday 3 April marked the 10th and last full day of our road trip. To honour this we played a round of golf at what has to be one of the most scenic golf courses in NZ: the Queenstown Golf Course located on the peninsula Kelvin Heights, which juts out into Lake Wakatipu. It was absolutely amazing, and I think I speak for all four of us when I say that was one of the most pleasant games of golf I've ever enjoyed, despite the results which aren't worthy the light of day. The perfect day was topped off with a home-made farewell dinner á la JBB & Giigan. We finally got to uncork the bottle of sparkling from the Christchurch hotel too.

JBB teeing off at the Queenstown Golf Course.

Saturday was a day of goodbyes. Juuso's and Eeva's flight left in the morning and the two of us were left wondering what to do next. The past 10 days had been so action-packed that we were suddenly at a loss of what to do with ourselves. The process of getting back to everyday life, meaning not living in comfy motels and apartments and eating gourmet food, had to begin.

We had the most amazing time together with Juuso and Eeva, and are looking very much forward to them visiting us in Australia too. Thanks for not choosing a pacific island resort! :-)

Juuso and Eeva enjoying a massage before the ~35 h flight back home.

MORE PICTURES are available here.

See a VIDEO CLIP of a remarkable dawn over Queenstown here (during an earlier visit to Queenstown on 26.2.2009).

Albatrosses and Blue Penguins

Today I'm going to finish telling you about our road trip together with Giigan's parents Eeva-Inkeri and Jaakko. Last time I left us in Queenstown, which was more or less only a eat-well-and-get-a-good-night's-sleep stop for us. The following morning we continued to Te Anau and Milford Sound, which we've already told you about. We were supposed to go on a cruise on Doubtful Sound the very next day (11th March), but a problem had occured with the operator's ship, so the cruise got cancelled. At first we were a bit annoyed by this unfortunate turn of events, but we quickly recovered and came up with alternative plans, mainly to the benefit of our distinguished guests.

While Giigan and I laboured in the kitchen of our hostel, earning remarks like "that's the best meal I've ever seen cooked at a backpackers'", Eeva-Inkeri and Jaakko went on a half-day tour to the Manapouri underground powerstation (more on it in a later blog post). In the evening, with only minutes to spare, we had time to drive them to the Te Anau cinema screening an exclusive 30 minute scenic film giving a unique bird's eye perspective of the Southwest corner of NZ, before rushing them to a tour of the glowworm caves in Te Anau. A few speed limits might have been broken that day, but I dare say a day can't be much more successful than that.

Ready for a day on the road.

Leaving Te Anau the next day, we drove to rainy Invercargill, where we quenched our thirst at the Invercargill Brewery and visited the Southland Museum. Most of the daylight left was spent driving to Dunedin, where we stayed the night. Fortunately the weather cleared up the next morning, and we had a great time showing the Otago Peninsula to Jaakko and Eeva-Inkeri. At the Albatross Centre on the tip of the peninsula, we even saw a couple of Royal Albatrosses lazily soar past. Mine and Giigan's highlight was visiting the Emerson's brewery, whose Pilsner was the first organic beer in NZ. Emerson's beers remain some of our absolute favourites over here.

Good times in Dunedin.

After a brief visit to Baldwin Street - allegedly the steepest street in the world - we left Dunedin and headed for Oamaru. We've written about Oamaru and Dunedin before, so I won't go into much detail again. Suffice it to say, that in Oamaru we visited the Blue Penguin colony. Blue Penguins are also called Little Penguins, because they don't grow taller than 25-40 cm. Their eyes and backsides are a beautiful blue color. They're quite charming creatures. For $20 you can watch them from a gallery as they come home just after sunset. Watching their arrival is very enchanting, partly because they behave so adorably.

In Oamaru the penguins have to climb a rocky ramp out of the water and cross a gravel walking track in order to reach their colony, comprising some 20 burrows on a green lawn. If this doesn't sound scary enough, most of the time there's a fur seal or two dozing not far away on the gravel track. Luckily for the blue penguins, NZ fur seals, contrary to leopard seals for instance, don't find the penguins to be any kind of culinary delight.

The penguins who are coming home for the night won't all arrive at the same time. Since they don't like moving alone over scary terrain on land, they'll wait for a few buddies to arrive before attempting to cross the gravel track. Even in numbers, scuttling the 3 or 4 metres from the edge of the ramp to the relative safety of the lawn, is no trivial undertaking. The group of four or so penguins will hesitate just on the edge of the gravel track, backtrack, inch a few feet forward, repeat, and wait for a leader that won't arrive, sometimes for a surprisingly long time. A serious attempt to cross is usually a result of the other penguins shoving one to the head of the pack, or everyone except one taking a step back. Once some penguins start crossing though, the whole business is over in just a few seconds, as no one wants to be left behind or be the last.

Something of a joke on the road to the penguin colony.

Watching this is very comical. Sorry to dissapoint you though: no pictures were allowed to be taken of the penguins, not even without a flash (thanks to all Asian tourists who can't operate their cameras properly). Here's an external picture of some blue penguins if you're curious as to their appearance.

Our last full day (14th March) in the company of Giigan's parents was spent walking along said gravel track that the penguins were afraid to cross, visiting the other attractions in Oamaru (Whitestone cheese factory, NZ Malt Whisky Company, Victorian-style buildings, etc.) and driving back to Christchurch. In the evening we celebrated the successful road trip at the Italian restaurant Cafe Valentino, eating and drinking like kings and queens one last time (kova paluu arkeen koitti meitä tämän jälkeen...).

The chefs at Cafe Valentino know how to put a smile on Giigan's face.

Many thanks to Eeva-Inkeri and Jaakko for visiting us here on the other side of the world. We enjoyed every second of your visit!

MORE PICTURES are available through this link.

Kepler Track

Te Anau is not only the gateway to Milford Sound, but also an excellent base for a number of walks in the Fiordland region. One of them is the fairly easy and highly accessible Kepler Track, which is one of New Zealand's "Great Walks". It's a circular track starting from and ending at the Lake Te Anau Control Gates about 5 km from the town centre. The track is 60 km long (one of the longest) and takes 4 days to finish. Nights are slept in the three huts along the way. The walk offers spectacular scenery in the Fiordland National Park, ranging from alpine tundra to beech forests and lake views.

At the Control Gates by Lake Te Anau, ready for the four day walk.

Giigan and I walked the track between Thursday 19 Feb and Sunday 22 Feb. The rest of this blog post will be in Swedish with diary excerpts written on the walk (I need to keep my Swedish alive), but as always, the picture captions in the gallery are in English.

Kursivtext är utdrag ur dagboken, ibland något editerat.

Dag 1 - torsdag 19.2.2009: Första dagen på Kepler Track i Fiordland lider mot sitt slut. Vi övernattar i Luxmore Hut på sluttningen av Mt Luxmore. Idag har vi tillryggalagt den tyngsta biten av denna fyra dagars "Great Walk" (60 km in alles). Från Te Anau på 250 meters höjd har vi stigit över trädgränsen till molnens rike på 1085 meter. Imorgon stiger vi ännu lite högre, men i huvudsak börjar det bära av neråt härifrån framåt. Hittills har vandringen varit ypperlig. En spännande bonus väntade oss här vid alpstugan; i närheten finns en 2 km djup grotta, som vi utforskade en god bit. [...] Vi har nu snart varit 4 veckor på resande fot igen och visst har det varit skönt att bara ha semester. Paradoxalt nog, känns det nu som att det vore tungt att söka efter ett nytt jobb och börja arbeta nånstans, samtidigt som det vore skönt att lugna ner nånstans och inte ständigt behöva fundera var vi ska övernatta till näst eller vilka ställen som ska besökas. Jag saknar med andra ord rutiner igen. [...]

Uppe på ca 1000 meters höjd på slutrakan av den första etappen.

Första vandringsdagen började med en 1½ timmes lätt promenad längs stranden av Lake Te Anau. Vädret var fantastiskt hela dagen och till och med lite för hett under den 3 timmar långa branta klättringen upp till den första övernattningsstugan. Eftersom vi var framme redan tidigt på eftermiddagen hade vi god tid på oss att utforska grottan som fanns i närheten. Med pannlamporna på oss spenderade vi säkerligen en timme i jordens mörka inre, men trots det kom vi inte ner till bottnen (det ska finnas en skylt där). Tunneln var på många ställen mycket smal, trång och svårframkomlig, vilket saktade ner farten mycket. Det var kallt och fuktigt, men magpirrande spännande att söka sig allt djupare.

Efter grottans mynning som syns här smalnade tunneln av betydligt.

Säsongstid (oktober till april) finns det gasspisar i stugorna, rinnande kallt vatten, spol-WC, elektrisk belysning och ved för uppvärmning. Vintertid saknas dessa. Enkla våningssängar med madrasser finns året om. Säsongstid är stugorna också bemannade av parkvaktare. Allt detta betyder att alla förnödenheter man behöver under vandringen måste var och en bära med sig själv. I huvudsak betyder detta mat, bestick, assietter och kokredskap. Allt skräp man producerar ska naturligtvis också bäras bort av en själv (det är trots allt en nationalpark man vandrar igenom).

Våra dunsovsäckar visade sig mycket funktionerande också under de kalla nätterna (ingen uppvärmning förutom i matsalarna).

Dag 2 - fredag 20.2.2009: Surrealistiskt. Det var känslan jag fick idag då jag tänkte på att jag om några dagar varit på resande fot i ett halvt år. Det är en lång tid. Det är nästan skrämmande hur snabbt det gått. Känns som om det bara var igår då jag stod i dörröppningen i Esbo; stod på Vasa tågstation; promenerade längs Lervägen i Solf; och festade på lokalen i Solf. [...] Bodde jag faktiskt 3 månader i Mt Maunganui? Hade jag jobb, eget rum och egen säng? Det känns som en dröm. Otroligt att det hände. Och när jag tänker på tiden på det sättet, så har det också varit en lång tid borta från alla nära och kära. [...] Kanske det var dagens hårda regn och den långa vandringen över alpterräng som fick mig att kontemplera detta.

Dag två av vandringen kunde ha gett oss fantastiska alputsikter, men tyvärr var vädermannen inte på vår sida idag. Största delen av tiden vandrade vi inne i ett regnande, grått moln. Visst var det enastående i sig, men eftersom det också kommer att regna imorgon och övermorgon betyder det att hela vandringen förvandlats till ett mycket blött äventyr. Trots vår goda utrustning är våra kläder våta inte bara pga svett, eftersom vi ju vandrar 4 timmar per dag och måste utstå elementen utan annat skydd än det vi bär på oss. Men jag klagar inte (ännu!). Det här är Fiordland; det är meningen att det ska regna mycket. Det är vad Giigan ville ha minst en dag på vandringen. [...] Nu släcktes de automatiska lamporna i stugan (klockan är 22) och jag ids inte slösa batterierna i pannlampan på att sitta här längre (sällskapsrummet/matsalen). Dags att gå till sängs!

På grund av att vi lämnade Luxmore stugan väldigt sent under dag 2 och därmed anlände bland de sista till följande stuga - Iris Burn Hut - fick vi inte våra våta kläder ordentligt upphängda intill kaminen där. Det hjälpte inte heller att de andra vandrarna från varierande nationaliteter inte vaktade elden särskilt bra, till följd att den var svag och dog ett antal gånger. Följdaktligen var våra kläder fuktiga ännu nästa morgon. Vi hade dock bestämt oss för att inte upprepa vårt misstag (speciellt med tanke på att det inte lovats något uppehåll i regnet), så vi stack iväg tidigt den tredje dagen för att kunna erövra kaminen i Moturau stugan inför den sista övernattningen.

Moturau Hut, dag 3.

Dag 3 - lördag 21.2.2009: Det är märkvärdigt hur oändligt långt 16 km känns då man trampar genom skog och mark. Regnet öste ner idag också, och det bidrog till att göra marschen till en tunnel utan slut. När man går mellan de gamla mossbeklädda trädstammarna och endast emellanåt ser något landmärke längre bort än några hundra meter, förlorar tiden sin betydelse. Det känns som om man gått i en evighet och att man redan borde vara framme. Vad som i själva verket bara varit 10 minuter verkar som om en hel timme måste ha flutit förbi.

I en sådan skog som vi vandrade genom idag har ingen bråttom.

När vi efter 3½ timme nådde dagens lägerplats - stugan Moturau Hut intill Lake Manapouri - var vi glada åt att vi varit bland de första som lämnat Iris Burn Hut på morgonen, för det betydde att det inte var många andra framme ännu och vi kunde börja torka våra kläder i lugn och ro. Det kändes som gamla armétider att efter en lång marsch i blötan sätta upp eld i kaminen och lägga kläderna och ryka så nära som möjligt. Vi fick t.o.m. den gamla tjocka Klondyke-järnburken att lysa mansikka. Så eldar finnar! Och ikväll har kläder faktiskt blivit torra till skillnad från förra kvällen fast det då också "eldades" i kaminen.

Till en början var det knepigt att få igång elden pga fuktig ved, men sen till slut fick vi nog kaminen att rodna!

De senaste 8 timmarna har jag faktiskt inte gjort något speciellt, förutom att snabbt koka mat (nudlar och bönor), huggit ved och vaktat elden. Det har varit riktigt gemytligt.

Imorgon har vi vandringens sista etapp framför oss. 16 km genom platt skogsterräng längs en bäck. Mera regn har lovats, men det kvittar. Vandringen har inte varit nära på ens utmanande, fast lite sjuka är vi nog här och var. Axlarna är spända av att bära den tunga rinkan (vi har en rinka och en ryggsäck och turas om) och mitt vänstra knä har värkt efter gårdagens långa branta nedförsbacke. Annars är benen i gott skick, fast lite känner jag naturligtvis av att vi gått i snitt 15 km per dag de senaste tre dagarna.

På slutrakan, dag 4.

Känslan var fantastisk efter att ha fullbordat hela vandringen på söndagen. Det regnade inte ens sista dagen, men det var mulet och vatten från skogens träd droppade på oss. På kvällen gottade vi oss med god mat, goda Tuatara öl och plättar vid vårt härbärge: Rainbow Downs Barnyard Backpackers. Kepler Track var en fin upplevelse som vi kan rekommendera åt alla som gillar vandringar. Det finns inte många saker som är bättre än att komma bort från civilisationens bekvämlighet i några dagar och låta naturens frid fylla sinnet.

MORE PICTURES from the walk are available in the picture gallery here, and a VIDEO CLIP is available on youtube here.

Red fish and yellow-eyed penguins

Another week has gone by, rather quickly if you ask me. Work didn't go as well for me this week as last week, but it was still decent.

Today I was volunteering for Greenpeace for about an hour and a half. We walked from the Cathedral in the city centre to the Art Centre market and handed out Greenpeace's consumer guide how to avoid the most unsustainable seafood to people we met on the street. That is, the others were doing all the talking and handing out the guides, while I was having fun being our ocean's campaign mascot: Sammy, the semi-sad Orange Roughy fish. My upper body covered by the round red fish costume, I went with the flow, approached families, let children give me a pat (or a tug on the tail!) and posed for many a walker-by's camera.

JBB as Sammy, a semi-sad Orange Roughy fish.

It felt good for once doing something not as an employer and without any performance pressure, but simply for the importance and good of doing it.

A couple of days ago I talked to an elderly guy who had some very interesting thoughts on the origin of the climate change the planet is experiencing. Is it due to human activity since the Industrial Revolution? Because of the increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere? A consequence of deforestration and ocean pollution? No, no, no! There is a much more logical and plausible explanation.

The whole mess is the fault of the French.

You heard me right! The French have caused global warming! (At this point I should inform you that some Kiwis still hold a huge grudge against the French for bombing the Rainbow Warrior in the 80s.) It's all because of those countless nuclear tests the French did on the atolls in the South Pacific years and years ago. What happened, was that the series of nuclear explosions in the exact same spot over and over again, caused a change in the inclination of the Earth, thus changing the seasons and the climate we had up until then!

Proof of this can be found in the fact that the French eventually stopped their nuclear tests. Was this because of public outrage and environmental organisations like Greenpeace demanding the tests to cease and the Pacific to be made into a nuclear free zone? Again, no. The opinions of the little people don't matter. Governments will do as they want. The tests ended simply because someone way high up, had figured out what the nuclear explosions were doing, i.e. ultimately giving birth to the tool of our own self-destruction. (I'm still talking about climate change. And I'm serious.)

What a conspiracy theory. I was dumbstruck having heard that. What do you respond to something like that? It's not like you can convince someone that deluded of the truth. Poor humanity.

Alright, so that, I guess, pretty much sums up my week. In order for the blog to ever catch up with current events, I'm going to tell you how our journey continued from Dunedin, where I left you at the end of the last post.

The Southern Scenic Route is a coastal journey starting in Dunedin and ending in Te Anau, the heart of Fiordland (or the other way around). You can get the free map of the route at any information centre; it shows where all the attractions are located. There is lots and lots to see, but unfortunately many of the attractions are not located within easy access from the road; to some you need to walk for an hour or two to reach. Other attractions, like the Cathedral Cove, are only accessible a few hours every day due to the tide. Preferrably, you'd split the drive onto several days in order to see as much as possible. We, on the other hand, chose to drive the whole leg in one day. This made us miss some things, but ultimately I don't think it's something we'll regret.

What we did see though, was one of the many waterfalls in the Catlins region (negligible), the 160 million year old fossilised forest at Curio Bay, some yellow-eyed penguins and the Blue Rocks in Riverton. Curio Bay is absolutely worth a stop if you drive the route. The fossilised forest is viewable depending on the tide, and looks really just like imprints of tree logs in the rock cliffs of the beach. When we jumped out of the car to go down there, it was pretty stormy, so we also got to see some huge waves breaking into the cliffs.

Waves crashing into the cliffs in Curio Bay.

We were also lucky enough to spot two yellow-eyed penguins in the bay. They were standing further up the beach next to some low-branched trees and bushes. One of them frequently flapped its wings at a high speed drying the feathers.

A yellow-eyed penguin in Curio Bay.

Because the weather was less than enjoyable, we ended up driving all the way to Invercargill pretty much without further stops. Invercargill was a bit of a disappointment. The largest town in Southland and portal to Stewart Island lacks character and has the charming feel of an industrial town. It has enough promise to tickle one's tentacles of curiosity for an hour or two (at most), but to spend a day and a night in Invercargill would probably mean a day and a night that could have been better spent in a number of other places in NZ. Don't fall for it.

Leaving Invercargill not only improved the scenery, but also the weather. By the time we very briefly stopped in Riverton to switch driver and take three photographs of the curious Blue Rocks, we could almost discern Stewart Island 30 km out at sea.

The Blue Rocks in Riverton.

From there it only got better the further we drove north towards Fiordland and its main town, Te Anau. Gradually we passed into more and more mountainous terrain, eating up the miles with our green petrol-drinker. The sun didn't have much time left above the jagged peaks by the time we arrived in the cozy little town in the most iconic part of the country. Before finding our accommodation (Barnyard Backpackers, a very idyllic place we like very much) 9 km out of town, we quickly familiarised ourselves with the lakeshore and the shopping street, as this would become our base for a while. Te Anau, which lies on the shore of Lake Te Anau, the second-largest lake in NZ, is after all, the gateway to some of the best tramps in NZ, Fiordland National Park, as well as the magnificient fiords like Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound.

Dusk over Fiordland as seen from the Barnyard Backpacker's hostel.

If this text was more boring than usual, hopefully the next couple of entries will be more inspiring as I cover our first trip to awesome Milford Sound and our four day tramp on the Kepler Track! 'Til then, keep it real!