Fiordland, the Catlins, and Otago Peninsula

On our way south from the Wanaka region, we stopped in Old Town Cromwell for a break. We found a cute little historical village, no cars allowed, on the edge of the lake. [This is apparently a section of the old town that was moved and preserved before the town flooded after the construction of a dam.] We also found Armando's Kitchen, a very pleasant coffee shop/cafe/produce mart. We lingered over some flat whites (beans ground to order) and conversation with Armando. Afterward we took a wander around Old Town and the mix of art shops and museum pieces. A little further down the road we took a pit stop in Arrowtown. This has a much more built-up "historical" district but is still pleasant to walk around.

We blew past Queenstown since we can't afford to skydive, jetboat, or otherwise pay to fling ourselves through space. Instead we stopped for lunch at a picnic site along Lake Wakatipu between Queenstown and Kingston.

A short drive later we found ourselves in Te Anau, the base for Fiordland. We got a space at Fiordland Great Views Holiday Park, though there were only views of a hedge (and the sheep on the other side of the bush) and all the extra "amenities" they advertise cost more, from the spa (where an extra cost makes sense) to the forks and laundry pegs (huh?). We had a chill day there, walking to town to get groceries for the trip into Fiordland and booking a kayak trip on Milford Sound. We left Te Anau and drove to Gunn Camp along the Hollyford, about 40 km from Milford. We quickly found out that the Hollyford Valley is famous for its sandflies.

After figuring out accomodations, we took the trail to Lake Marian, situated in a hanging valley amongst the mountains. The trail was steep for much of the way and very rocky, necessitating some clambering. Fun!!! Along the way we passed Marion Falls and stopped for a snack. We arrived at Lake Marian to bits of sunshine and a beautiful lake, with views of glaciers and snow.

The next day we woke up super early to arrive in Milford at 7am for our kayak trip. The road was dark and deserted, and we got to drive through the Homer Tunnel without seeing another car. After a short trip from the meeting point to the launch, we donned our neoprene skirts and fancy yellow mist jackets and set out into the fiord. [fjord? what happened to the j?] The day was gorgeous, with no rain, light wind, and only spotty clouds. Apparently Milford was having a bit of a heat wave, and it got to about 20 C. The water was calm and clear and we had a great time paddling about 18 km from the bay at the base of the fiord to the Tasman Sea. A few sea birds were about and we came across lots of NZ fur seals. A boat met us where the sea surge starting to knock us around (gently, whee!) and took us back to Milford.

After a short rest and lunch, we took the Routeburn Track a short distance to the trail to Key Summit. Many, many switchbacks later we arrived at the top (918 m), where a strange and beautiful alpine forest/marsh sat. We also got views of Lake Marian, where we had been the day before. The nature trail at the summit was the best one we've done yet.

It was windy that night, which kept the sandflies mostly at bay. Even more wind in the morning meant we barely got eaten at all as we packed up to leave the fiords. We stopped again at Te Anau for gas and a snack at the friendly Sandfly Cafe. After that we continued along the Southern Scenic Route and picked up a couple sausages in Tuatapere (the sausage capital of NZ, apparently) and stopped for a nice ocean/mountain view at McCracken's Rest along the coast.

A short drive later we were in Invercargill, where we found the Invercargill Brewery and had a very lovely (and free!) tasting. Their beer was great (and they contract brew stuff from all over NZ) and we picked up a 1.25 L rigger of their NZ pils, a bottle of Boysenberry, and a vintage 2008 bottle of their Smokin' Bishop. We picked up a site in the park across the river for the night and enjoyed the pils with dinner after a walk/run through the totara forest in the park.

The next day we took another park walk through forest and along the estuary. Then we headed for the Catlins. We took the coastal route and stopped at Slope Point (the southernmost point on the island), Porpoise Bay, and Curio Bay. We got to see the super-rare Hector's dolphins that live in Porpoise bay jumping around--the resident pod numbers only about 20--and the most-rare yellow-eyed penguins at Curio Bay among the petrified trees the litter the beach. Pretty cool!

After that we drove along and wound up at a cute little holiday park near Surat Bay. We took an evening stroll along the river mouth toward the ocean, but never got there as we were blocked by the (also rare) NZ sea lions that were a little agitated after the previous group of tourists got a little too close. The sunset still looked nice from the river.

The next day we drove to nearby Jack's Bay and took a walk to Jack's Blowhole. As we keep finding in NZ, things are not really what they are named after (see the lagoon incident in Bay of Islands). The "blowhole" was more of a sink that was connected to ocean, and it didn't really blow despite our being there at high tide. It was an impressively large hole, though, and the surrounding scenery was great. We then stopped off at Nugget Point to see the lighthouse and watch the sea birds fly around.

Then we headed north for the Otago Peninsula just outside Dunedin. We got a spot in the town of Portobello (not sure about the relation to the mushroom) and drove out to Pilot Beach near sunset. There we and a ton of other tourists all stared at the one blue penguin on the beach for quite some time. And we waited, and waited, and then after about half the folks had begged off due to darkness a little group (flock?) of penguins came swimming in from the ocean. They popped out, waddled through the gulls, and headed for their burrows in the sand. Blue penguins are the smallest in the world and they looked really cute walking around the beach with their bright white bellies and grey/blue backs. After they got to the burrows, they started making little cooing noises, fully cementing the "cutest penguin in the world" title.

The next morning we headed for the Dunedin farmer's market. We're now 3 for 3 for visiting farmers' markets in the rain. It was a really nice market and we picked up food for a couple days, including some nice looking local beef and some truly beautiful kale. Time to head north and back into the mountains.