Fiordland National Park

Glacial Rock Farmstay Cottage

We haven’t blogged in a while because we’ve been so busy in this extraordinary part of the world. We have reached the ½ way and the southernmost part of our 3 month journey Down Under. I’ve been looking forward to Milford Sound for many years, ever since I saw one of those Discovery Channel type programs about the best hiking trails in the world. Apparently 16,000 people hike the Milford Track during a season. We couldn’t do it this trip over – no time. It poses major challenges – weather, bugs etc. The Kiwis have this area so well organized, I’m sure it would be great to take the softie route, hike with a day pack and have our luggage transported for us. You also stay in nice lodges rather than in huts. It’s really expensive, and it is guaranteed to rain constantly. This is one of the wettest parts of the world – the cool temperate rain forest.
We stayed at Glacial Rock B & B – a farmstay about 5 minutes from Te Anau. Spritely Sara Murphy, wearing short denim overalls and big Wellington boots, greeted us warmly, and went over our action packed program. We’d agreed to her prebooking all our expeditions for us, and we had a full agenda for our 3 days. Tues.: Milford Sound Cruise with a 2 hour drive each way to get to the embarkation point, Wed.: boat ride across Lake Te Anau to the Glowworm Caves, Thurs.: Discovery Sound Cruise, starting with a boat ride across Lake Manapouri, 45 min. bus trip across the Wilmott Pass to the embarkation point, 3 hour cruise through the fiord to the Tasmin Sea and back, bus ride, trip into the Manapouri Underground Power Station, boat ride back across the lake – 8 hours in all. Whew! This is why we don’t take organized tours generally as we like to set our own agendas. However we wanted to maximize our time here and, as you will see, we fit in a few other activities too!
Upon her recommendation we headed for the local cinema to see the stunning film Ata Whenua (Maori for Shadowland). The film was produced by a local helicopter pilot who collaborated with members of the film crew from Lord of the Rings to produce this beautiful documentary about the region.
The pilot had flown during the days when they did deer recovery down here which we found was not (initially at least) recovery at all but the slaughtering of the invasive Red Deer that populated the mountainsides. Europeans had introduced many harmful predators to these shores trying to create England/Scotland in NZ. Species including the deer, possum, stoats, rats, dogs and cats have decimated the native bird species, and there is a big effort now to rectify the situation. In the 60s there was a bounty on the deer as they have no natural predators here. Then the Kiwis found there was a market for NZ venison and started hunting them down in droves using small planes and later helicopters. We saw a film entitled Venison Hunters all about this endeavour – it was like something out of the wild west in North America! I kept wondering what my dad would think had he been here as he loved to stalk deer. Would he think this was just too easy or would he sign on and think it was one of the most exciting things he could have done in his younger days – shooting deer from the air – rather like shooting fish in a barrel – leaping out, gutting them, tying them in bundles to the helicopters and flying them out. I suspect he would have enjoyed the latter. Later the Kiwis changed strategies and wrestled with them, carrying them out live to sell to farmers as livestock. Our farm had many paddocks of the beautiful creatures, probably descendents of the fiord herds. It’s certainly easy to see that one mustn’t mess with Mother Nature introducing alien species is not a bright idea, nature is very delicately balanced!
Because the pilot couldn’t find much of a market for his film, he built the local cinema and screens it almost every hour interspersing two first run films, one in the early afternoon and another at 8 p.m. This was the nicest cinema I’ve ever visited with comfy arms chair seats where one can enjoy a beer or glass of wine with the film – so civilized! As the film began I was immediately back in that helicopter with tears in my eyes. If helicopters are beyond your aspiration or budget, watching the film on the big screen with surroundsound is as close to the real experience as possible. I found myself in tears again at the beauty of this enchanted place. I immediately started plotting to get back in the air. Fortunately my partner was in agreement this time, both in reaction to the film and aspiring to enjoy another ride in a chopper!