THE TE ANAU TOUR ,NEW ZEALAND JOURNEY

BLOG POST 38
We first went to Punanga Manu o Te Anau  Bird Sanctuary , set on the shores of Lake Te Anau,  15 minute walk from the Fiordland National Park Visitor Centre.

The sanctuary is open from dawn to dusk and caters for guided tours. Entry was free for self-guided visitors, but a gold coin donation is appreciated.
 The rare flightless takahe are the star attraction of the Bird Sanctuary and meeting these prehistoric-looking characters was a wonderful opportunity for us all.

The flightless takahe is a colorful green and blue bird with an impressive red beak and stout legs. Thought to be extinct until its rediscovery by Doctor Geoffrey Orbell in 1948, the recovery of the species now falls under DOC’s Takahe Recovery Program

 We could see the birds held in aviaries which had either been injured and cannot survive in the wild, or they involved in captive rearing programs. The injured birds are rehabilitated and, if possible, released back into the wild when they are strong enough.

 An added bonus for us was the variety of free-flying birds seen around the centre. Many are attracted by the food available from the native trees and shrubs that have been planted around the park.
 Native pigeons, tui, silver eyes, grey warblers, starlings, tomtits, bell birds, pied and black fantails appeared from time to time, often feeding in the bush at the lake’s edge. Small groups of green finches and chaffinches also visit, while harriers and falcons make occasional appearances, attracted by other birds.

We then saw the kakapo (or night parrot ) one of New Zealand’s unique ‘treasures’, with just under 150 known surviving birds it is listed internationally as a critically endangered species.
Large, flightless and nocturnal, the kakapo is an eccentric parrot which can live for decades. With mottled, moss-green feathers, camouflage is the bird’s main form of defence.

After a small tea break, we then began our trip to the Te Anau Glowworm Caves . We boarded a catamaran across Lake Te Anau to where the caves are located
The lake covers an area of 344 km2 (133 sq mi), making it the second largest lake by surface area in New Zealand and the largest in the South Island.

The main body of the lake runs north-south, and is 65 km in length. Three large fiords form arms to the lake on its western flank ,North Fiord, Middle Fiord and South Fiord ,the only inland fiords that New Zealand has, the other 14 being on the coast.
The lake has a depth of 417 m, with the deepest part of the lake 226 metres below sea level.
Several rivers feed the lake, of which the most important is the Eglinton river

The lake was first discovered by European explorers Charles Naim and William Stephen in 1852.
 According to Māori legend there was a cave filled with glowing light somewhere on the shores of the lake. In 1948 this supposedly mythical cave was rediscovered, complete with the lights of countless puratoke (glow-worms).
Te Ana-au means te: the, ana: cave, au: swirling, in reference to an underground torrent that ran through the cave.
We were blessed with warm sunshine and clear skies. The high speed cruise across Lake Te Anau provided us with opportunities to view the majestic snow-capped mountains.

 It was a little difficult to hear some of the commentary whilst we were up top - the noise of the wind made it very indistinct and it was pretty chilly on top
The Te Anau caves are a culturally and ecologically important system of limestone caves
They were discovered in 1948 by Lawson Burrows, who found the upper entry after three years of searching, by following clues in old Maori legends.

It later became a major tourist attraction for the area
The unofficial name used by the national caving  association is Aurora.
 After a short walk down the wharf and a path, where we came across beech trees

 we arrived at the cavern house housing the visitor center , where our large group was split into smaller groups of about 8 people, each with our own guide.

 We then rotated between touring the glowworm cave and waiting in the visitor center. Inside the visitor center there were several information placards where we could read about glowworms (life cycle, biology, etc.) and the history of the caves.

There was a power point presentation about the life cycle There was also a small concessions stand (with free coffee and tea)
The glow worms are larvae of the fungus gnat and have a life cycle, eggs are laid by the adult fly
Larvae (maggots) hatch 3 weeks later.

A young larva is only a few millimetres long. Over six to nine months the larva grows steadily until it is about 3–4 centimetres long. It hangs loosely from a damp, sheltered surface, inside a horizontal tube made of very flexible silk and mucus. When mature the larva becomes a pupa.
In the pupal or cocoon stage the pupa hangs vertically from a thread for about two weeks until emerging as an adult fly.
The adult fly cannot feed and lives only a few days – enough time to mate, and for the female to lay about 100 eggs.
The glow-worm’s tail-light shines from an organ with a blue-green light from it.
Glow-worm lines vary greatly in number and length, depending on the size of the larva and where it is living. Forest-dwelling glow-worms hang lines that are only 1–2 centimetres long, because they could get tangled in a breeze. In the still air of caves, lines can reach up to half a metre.

We found this underground world astonishingly beautiful. The cave are 12,000 years old which by geological standards is still very young and they are still being carved out by the force of the river that flows through them.
The result is a twisting network of limestone passages filled with sculpted rock, whirlpools and a roaring underground waterfall.
Reasonable agility level is necessary as some bending is required due to low cave entrances and steps being involved
This tour is not suitable for wheelchair passengers
 Photography is understandably not permitted as it would adversely affect the glow worms in their habitat. Talking isn’t permitted either for the same reason.
Our group was taken in by the guide,it was a short walk in the dark using only the guide’s torch for light but following well constructed access ways.
 We could see a few glow worms on the way to the boat but the majority are seen on the boat ride itself which is taken in the pitch dark.
 The guide led us along a path built with non-slip surfaces, steps/scaffolding, and railings, stopping at a few quieter spots to briefly talk about the cave and its geology, etc. We also walked by a very powerful cave waterfall that was pretty powerful in impact.

 After about 10 minutes, we reached the end of dry land (and lighting) where there was a small boat anchored to a rope that extended into the darkness.
Getting into the boat took a lot of dexterity and balance Once our group had boarded (everyone facing outward), the guide directed the boat further into the cave by pulling it along the rope it was attached to.

At this point it became quieter and very dark, and we began to see glow worms all over the cave walls and ceilings like constellations in the night sky. The guide did a great job of angling and turning the boat so everyone could have a good look at the  glow worms

Once the glowing trip was over, we got into the catamaran and returned to our hotel as we had a long day ahead

HEAVEN ON EARTH ! MILFORD SOUNDS - NEW ZEALAND JOURNEY

BLOG POST 37
Atlas we finally arrived in the much awaited Milford sounds
Milford Sound / Piopiotahi is a fiord in the south west of New Zealand’s South Island
It has been judged one of world's top travel destinations and acclaimed as New Zealand's most famous tourist destination. Rudyard Kipling had rightly called it the eighth wonder of world

We parked our bus in the allotted parking and alighted with our bags containing a pair of clothes and essentials.
We walked down to the wharf area where we were asked to assemble and wait for the entire group to come,saw a huge New Zealand jade block , luckily the day was bright and breezy

Milford Sound is named after Milford Haven in Wales and runs 15 kilometres inland from the Tasman Sea at Dale Point ,the mouth of the fiord and is surrounded by sheer rock faces that rise up to 1,200 metres on either side.
 Among the peaks are The Elephant at 1,517 metres resembling an Elephant’s head, and The Lion, 1,302 metres in the shape of a crouching lion
Just before 4:30 the gangway was opened and we went up the ship named Milford Mariner.

The friendly staff most of them  were very young and cheerful, directed us upstairs to the dining room, where our group met some more passengers and listened to the safety briefing which was quite brief luckily
We were then given our room keys and headed down to our cabin to divest ourselves of our bags
The room was cosy without being cramped, with a private bathroom and large, comfortable queen-size bed though we couldn’t look out of the small windows
 I thought” never mind we were hardly going to spend our time in the room and would be outside looking at the views most of the time”
Soon enough the Mariner was leaving the pier, and we were navigating our way through the misty scenes of Milford Sound.

The weather stayed sunny and the clouds lifted above the mountains, giving us tremendous views down the fjord.
All of the us gathered on the outside deck as we cruised through Milford Sound, mouths agape as forested  lime stone cliffs soared above us in every direction with milky white waterfalls appearing now and then and if we tried to look up ,we could see the snow capped mountain peaks
Our captain addressed us and told us the weather though very sunny , may suddenly turn wet but the consolation would be thousands of waterfalls for us to view
 Fiordland features a number of fiords, named sounds. Of the twelve major fiords on Fiordland's west coast, Milford Sound is the most famous and the only one accessible by road.

 Doubtful Sound, which is much larger, is a tourist destination, but less accessible as it requires a boat trip over Lake Manapouri and bus transfer over Wilmot Pass.
Milford Sound was initially overlooked by European explorers, because its narrow entry did not appear to lead into large interior bays. James Cook, bypassed Milford Sound on his journeys fearing that venturing too close to the steep mountainsides would prevent escape.
The fiord was a playground for local Maori who had extensive local marine knowledge regarding tidal turns and fish feeding patterns over generations prior to European arrival.
The fiord was discovered by Captain John Grono in 1812 who named it Milford Haven after his homeland in Wales. Captain John Lort Stokes later renamed Milford Haven as Milford Sound.
 While Fiordland remained one of the least-explored areas of New Zealand up to the 20th century, Milford Sound's natural beauty naturally attracted national and international attention, and led to the discovery of the Mackunnon pass in 1888, which become a part of the new Milford Track, an early walking tourism trail.

 Due to the often steep terrain and high amount of rainfall supporting dense vegetation, the interior of the Fiordland region is largely inaccessible.
 As a result, Fiordland was never subjected to notable logging operations, and even attempts at whaling, seal hunting, and mining were on a small scale and short lived, partly also because of the challenging weather.
 Fiordland contains by far the greatest extent of unmodified vegetation in New Zealand and significant populations of endemic plants and threatened animals, in some cases the only remaining wild populations.
Presently only around 120 to 150 people live in Milford Sound, most of them working in tourism or conservation.
 Milford Sound attracts an astounding 550,000 to 1 million visitors per year. Many tourists take one of the boat tours which usually last one to two hours. They are offered by several companies which depart from the Milford Sound Visitors' Centre.
 There are also scenic flights by light aircraft and helicopter tours to and from Milford Sound airport
With a mean annual rainfall of 6,412 mm each year, Milford Sound is known as the wettest inhabited place in New Zealand and one of the wettest in the world.
Rainfall can reach 250 mm during a span of 24 hours. The rainfall creates dozens of temporary waterfalls  (as well as a number of major, more permanent ones) cascading down the cliff faces, some reaching a thousand metres in length.

Smaller falls from such heights may never reach the bottom of the sound, drifting away in the wind. Accumulated rainwater can cause portions of rain forest to lose their grip on the sheer cliff faces, resulting in tree avalanches into the sound.
 The re growth of the rain forest after these avalanches could be seen in several locations along the sound as we cruised
As the ship went along its way we gorged on the hot muffins and sandwiches ,there was a constant supply of coffee and tea and even some books  for book worms like me

We made our way towards a sheltered and stunning Harrison’s cove, and the Mariner dropped anchor
 The Milford Discovery Centre & Underwater Observatory was located in Harrisons Cove on the north side of the fiord.
  Located within the Piopiotahi Marine Reserve, the underwater observatory allows visitors to view the fiord's unique marine environment at a depth of 10 metres.
 Due to a natural phenomenon called 'deep water emergence ' deep-water animals such as black coral can be viewed in the shallow waters surrounding the observatory.
 The crew in the ship were very friendly and briefed us on afternoon’s activities. After the ship got anchored,we were given the choice of either exploring the cove in   tinder boats which were small boats with limited capacity, or jumping in single-person kayaks and paddling around.Though we were tempted to kayak ,the fact that I couldn’t swim held me back

The water was crystal clear, and it was magical going on the ride with a very sportive guide, we smeared ourselves with anti sand fly ointment of course as many sand flies had decided to give us company on the boat ride
 As we cruised along we observed to our utter surprise our oldest friend from the bus out kayaking ,she recently had a hip replacement but was very active ,had come alone on the trip.My husband observed that she is more sportive than us ,but when I looked at her face as we passed by traces of alarm and panic were apparent on her face
After some time our boat turned around as there was an SOS call from our friend who wanted to return to the ship, we stayed by her till she was rescued and taken back into the ship

Our boat was sailing for an hour where we taken on a joy ride ,water was crystal clear and offered amazing reflections of the forests on the shore.
We were taken near some of the waterfalls to happily get wet, we were searching for dolphins and seals ,one of our friends had an eagle eye and with his help we could see some lazy seals sunning themselves on low-lying rocks below the looming granite crags rising above we could also see some penguins .

The sound has been identified as an Important Bird Area by Birdlife International because it is a breeding site for Fiordland penguins,
 We finally returned back to the ship ,few of our friends  were jumping and back flipping off  the back of the boat into the chilly waters, we admired their adventurous nature
As we were sitting and relaxing we could see the sun set which happens quite early in the fiords. One of the crew members came and announced that if anybody wanted a special dish they would try to provide it
My husband promptly got up and requested for chicken curry to appease our hungry spice taste buds
As it got darker and colder we went to our rooms and quickly had a wash and dressed up for our dinner
For the meals we had seats already allocated, which ensured that there was no awkward walking around trying to choose who to sit next to.

We were put with 2 other couples from our tour bus ,as we had already become friends during the trip, we had a good time chatting
We had a lovely sea food chowder soup ,different breads with dips - hummus and garlic butter ,local new Zealand wine was available along with a selection of all good drinks
The main chef came out and introduced the entire crew who had done a wonderful job, I observed that they were working very efficiently in the fully equipped but small kitchen, were very courteous and un tiring
Suddenly one of the young crew members came and lo presto! produced the chicken curry which threw my husband into delight and ecstacy, he literally hugged the young strapping Russian boy who was grinning profusely
The meal was a 5 course buffet dinner, with enough delicious food to cover anybody’s dietary needs, and we gorged ourselves on fresh seafood and New Zealand lamb. For the dessert, which had cheesecakes, brownies, ice cream, fruit and of course pavlova, the ladies were invited to eat first

After the dinner we were invited to the front of the ship where we had a power point presentation by a crew member who shared photos of Milford Sound, the wildlife and the crew, he kept the 30-minute presentation light hearted and humorous,.
It was about 9pm when the presentation finished, and while some of the people retired to bed as it had been a long day, we sat sheltering under the bow canopy, soaking in the experience looking up at the stars ,the sound of the waves , the night life and the chilly breeze .

We woke up before sunrise  after a sound sleep hoping to see the sun rays, instead we woke to torrential downpour, strong winds and saw that the mountains were shrouded in low-lying clouds.
We remembered the words of our captain that the rain would create a presentation of myriad number of waterfalls ,we each grabbed a cup of piping hot coffee and went to the back deck area where we met some of our friends who had woken up even before we did

As we were looking around suddenly we saw to our delight 3 guests, 3 fur seals which decided to come abroad and give us company ,gracefully slithering off and on the hold they gave us a display of live gymnastics

In no time the sky lightened and rain slowed down ,we could see the waterfalls all around us and we also observed that in the night some more ships had dropped anchors and were swaying gracefully in the water

There was a call from the crew for breakfast which would be only for half an hour as we had to set sailing for the seas
The breakfast so lovingly prepared by the crew was a large spread but most of us partook it sparingly as we were about to embark on a journey into the rough sea
As the ship started,one of the crew commented on the important places to be seen ,though there was a light drizzle accompanied by strong winds ,all of us were braving the chilly air and the rain as the views were incredible ,the sounds which was like a gracious and placid beautiful woman the previous day suddenly with the advent of the rain turned into a vivacious and flirtatious young lass

As we passed the beautiful falls, we could see the water gushing from above like milk ,all around us the water was sparkling touched by the sun rays
To our luck suddenly a pod of dolphins appeared and started swimming in leaps and bounds around the ship the announcer said that we were particularly lucky to have so many dolphins showing up on this trip

Finally we approached the Arabian sea and could feel the roughness of the water,some of us went in as we were feeling queasy ,the interior was quite comfortable with large windows to look out

When we looked back into the fjord, which appeared somewhat hidden, we realized how Captain James Cook easily missed the fiord’s entrance when he first sailed by it in the late 1700s.
After few minutes in the sea the ship turned back and chugged along the coast giving us a chance to look at the tall mountains
There are two permanent waterfalls in the fiord, Lady Bowen Fall and Stirling Falls. We got a close look at each of them, beginning with Lady Bowen Falls

Our captain volunteered to take the ship under the huge waterfall ,so we all ventured outside and had a thorough drench from the huge water falling from the heights above us

We were like excited children going through some more times as it was thrilling and exhilarating, we passed the cove and finally could see the wharf approaching

We quickly gathered our bags and got ready to alight from the ship, all in all the cruise and overnight stay in Milford Sounds was an unforgettable experience