The Southern Alps
Where Doubtful Sound meets the Tasman Sea
I knew heading into Queenstown and then connecting to Te Anau meant entering some of the most majestic landscapes in New Zealand, perhaps the world, and yet I wasn't sure what to expect.
I had three primary missions from this gateway, each met with a tour booking: Aoraki/Mount Cook and the Hooker Track to view it, leaving from Queenstown; Milford Sound, and Doubtful Sound, leaving from Te Anau two hours away. I arrived into Queenstown from Dunedin after almost five hours on the bus, grateful for a little conversation with the Kiwi guy next to me, who was travelling to the US (LA, Nashville) in two weeks. Could he get around by train, he asked? Not much.… We talked through some options.
Central Queenstown, with a pedestrianized district
The center of Queentown is a vibrant retail/restaurant district connected to a lakefront ringed with views of the snow-capped stony mountain peaks in every direction - beautiful. Walkways were full of families on school break and twenty-something ski bums, celebrating both the last days of the ski season and the advent of warm, sunny weather. Large groups of the youngers were sunbathing as if they collapsed on the lakeshore. Visitors from Europe, Asia and especially Australia were all strolling about, enjoying spring.
I was able to walk up to my AirBNB just about 4 blocks away, but that fourth block was the steepest road I've ever seen in my life. In. My. Life. Hard to even stand, let alone walk. Can't call an Uber to go a block. Like everything, just do it. It was like climbing a ladder.
The view from the deck reached by gondola
The following morning, I joined the tourist throngs to ride a gondola to a lookout. On the viewing deck there were many women posing for high fashion shots, and men sporting dreads. Not your usual NZ. Back at the base, I walked through the shops and along the lakefront to connect nearby to beautiful natural areas, and I enjoyed an outdoor lunch and beer under a heater along the shore. Although highly pleasant, I found the shops, the restaurants, even accommodations and groceries more expensive here compared to the other towns visited.
The next day was an anticipated highlight of my entire trip, and that anticipation more than paid off. I took a tour to Aoraki/Mount Cook in order to walk the Hooker Track, a famous hike through the valleys, streams and lakes at the base. About three hours of driving each direction separate Queenstown from Mount Cook Village; I chose that over a couple of nights staying in the remote village for this trip, and didn't regret it because I gained from the many views, stops and commentary along the way.
Aoraki is often in the clouds and wet (Aoraki meaning "cloudpiercer"), and this day was no exception. We drove in sunshine for 2.5 hours, with stunning landscapes and LOTR locations along the way, only to begin to see the mountain in a cloudbank about a half hour out. By the time we arrived at the trail head, we were in the clouds that cast a haze over everything, along with steady rain. The wind was blowing at about 30-40 mph, gusting to much more, and the temperature was about 37 degrees F. As they say in MN, "ick."
Some fellow tourists took one look at the weather and, perhaps wisely, said they would wait in the upscale Heritage Lodge with a hot coffee. I knew I had to see what I came to see. I set off on a 3-hour roundtrip, flat-ish hike, with my brand-new, high-tech British rain shell purchased the day before.
I have almost no pictures of this experience, as I was afraid to pull out my phone in such rain for fear it would get wet and ruined. Plus, the mist and rain obscured so much, especially in photographs. But, it was so stunningly beautiful, every dripping, rain-sodden, wind-blown step. So much of the experience is beyond description, as I followed a valley with mountains rising all around, crossed three suspension bridges across fast-running ice-blue (even under cloudcover) streams, and passed by various ice-blue pools and lakes and multi-colored, multi-textured alpine vegetation and rocks. I dodged huge puddles along the way and nearly got blown off my feet by the wind a few times, and shielded my face from wind-blown sleet. About a halfway to the endpoint it started to sleet, making it even harder to see as a attempted to protect my face...but, I saw. The entire thing was beyond exquisite.
I arrived back to the bus mostly dry on my top half, and utterly drenched on the bottom, with just a little time to spare to catch my ride. When I got in, the tour guide asked, "Did you do the whole thing?" "Yes, I did," I said, wondering why he would doubt that.
"You were the only one" on the tour who did. My jaw hit the floor.
Aoraki and the widely ranging views from the Hooker Track are strong contenders for the most beautiful place on earth.
It is the national parks in NZ that feature the most original landscapes. As I've spent time here, I've learned that there is little native forest and vegetation left, as settlers and farmers have deforested and regraded most of the islands in favor of the pasturelands that support the endless cattle and sheep on both islands. Settlers also brought many invasive species that have been hard to manage. Pines are a problem right now, self-seeding faster than the native species, faster than the government can poison them with vegetable oil. The pines are also farmed for lumber and paper pulp, and it was a regular event to drive past vast areas of clearcut forests. A new airport is proposed outside of Queenstown in a farming area so scenic it was used in the Lord of the Rings movies. Canals connect mountain lakes across dams and many miles to harvest hydroelectric power. Though they do achieve 80% of their electricity from renewable sources (hydro, geothermal, and wind), New Zealand was not the paragon of nature preservation I'd hoped.
The landscapes driving back and forth were incredible, winding through every iteration of green or snowy peaks, so many shapes and patterns of folds. Sights included:
Deer farms; venison is an export
The town of Wanaka - smaller, newer and cuter than Qtown, though a more modestly beautiful view across the lake
Cardrona, a tiny town with a gin distillery, a very old historic pub (1850's), and ski lodges
The Haast Pass between Wanaka and Qtown, a very high, long, steep, narrow, windy road up and, even more so, back down into Qtown.
As we reentered Qtown, we did so through a sea of big box stores. In the midst of glorious mountains, they hurt my eyes.
T.S.S. Earnslaw
I had a day of rest and warming up in Queenstown before heading to Te Anau. I hopped the historic steamship TSS Earnslaw, a real icon of Queenstown, to cross the lake and enjoy the historic gardens and grounds at the other end, plus the mountain views along the way. A pianist playing a baby grand accompanied us the entire trip, a nice touch.
The air is different and special in Qtown and in the mountains: cool, crisp, clean, light.
My trip to Te Anau required booking van transportation and following the lakeshore past the Remarkables (ski mountains) to Gaston and its farm flats: as always, more cattle, deer and sheep. We drove through intermittant downpours and windgusts. Suddenly, we turned right to head towards different peaks, straight down flat roads through tiny farm towns reminiscent of areas of Minnesota.
Te Anau is a small town on a lake, with some views of mountains at the far end of the lake. There are not as many accommodation options here, and only a handful of restaurants, but enough. It is mainly an entry point to all that Fiordland National Park has to offer, in particular Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound, and the growing popularity means Te Anau has grown 5-6 times in population in the past 20 years.
Milford and Doubtful sounds receive up to 12 feet of rain per year. Yes, 12 feet. When it rains, it brings out the waterfalls, a good thing. However, rain gear is important to bring on these tours and sunshine is not likely statistically.
While in Te Anau, I started the last month of a five-month trip, having been to upteen cities, towns, accommodations, and getting there in buses, Ubers, taxis, airplanes, and tours. There have been a few times when I've gotten confused about logistics, and this one was the worst. I had two tours booked leaving from Te Anau on two different days, two starting times, and two departure points. For my first tour to Milford Sound, I got confused when the pickup was late and began to head to a different departure point. Thank goodness the guide caught up to me on foot, or I'd have missed Milford Sound, the #1 thing I'd wanted to see in NZ. Whew. For that gift, Fiordland Tours has my undying loyalty.
Milford Sound was unusually and gloriously sunny the day I was there. It is called Piopiotahi in Te Reo Maori (the Maori language), or "one piopio", a single small bird said to have mourned the Maori hero and demi-god Maui at his death at Milford Sound. Sadly, piopios have been extinct since 1905; so many New Zealand species have not survived the arrival of people in roughly the year 1200 (disputed). The drive from Te Anau to the Milford cruise dock is about an hour and a half, including unending stunning views, places and Lord of the Rings locations. That last half-hour is on a hell of a road - steep, switchbacked, narrow - such that many people choose a tour to skip driving that road. (On the way out, we saw an overturned car with two young tourists waiting for a tow; I was grateful that they were ok.)
Milford Sound
Milford Sound
Not to be believed. A random view on the way back.
Our group of about 10 left the van and boarded a boat for the tour. I moved to the top, open deck and immediately could feel the chill coming off the snowfields at the tops of the steep, rocky mountains bounding the sound. There was not a cloud in the sky. The boat took us the length of the sound out to the Tasman Sea, past ever-changing peaks and an array of waterfalls, and to see them from the other direction as we returned into the eastern end's pier.
On the way to Doubtful Sound, approaching the pier at the lake
A branch from Doubtful Sound
Looking back at the clouds in the Sound from the Tasman Sea
While Milford is a single, grander-scaled, rocky, majestic sound, Doubtful is different; set in rainforest and greener, with multiple arms and a higher density of striking views to explore and be awed by. It required a boat trip across a stunning lake with its own awesome beauty to reach a bus, which travelled on a logging road to reach the pier. The rainy weather cast a lovely mood to explore the various islands, gushing waterfalls and off-shoot bays, while the boat's canopy shielded us. Again, the boat took us to the Tasman Sea and back. Just incredible.
In the course of one week, I'd seen three of my top four experiences in New Zealand. I left Te Anau to return to Qtown for a night, then continue to Christchurch for two, to catch a train to a ferry to a train to reach the fourth.
