South Island, New Zealand Travel Log 5

Kia Ora friends! Welcome to my fifth travel log featuring my adventures visiting the South Island (Te Waipounamu) of New Zealand.

A quick recap, if you haven't been following along...I just returned from traveling to New Zealand with my momma and second dad for an adventure-filled few weeks. We arrived in Christchurch a few days before meeting up with our tour group to hike the South Island for a couple weeks. There were eleven of us on the tour, plus one guide. We traveled daily in a Sprinter van to grand locations throughout the South Island and experienced some incredible trails, scenery and excursions.

After a very early breakfast, we loaded up and started on our journey to Milford Sound. This was a beautiful drive with more incredible scenery. We stopped in Te Anau to explore, get coffee and take a short waterfront walk...then continued on with a "must see" stop on Lake Gunn, where the water reflections of the mountains on the lake were spectacular!  Once we arrived in Milford Sound, we took a helicopter further into Fiordland National Park where we had lunch in a hut right off the trail. We then walked to a jet boat where we sped across the Hollyford River to a new trail head and hiked to Long Reef, where we visited a NZ fur seal colony and had a rare sighting of Fiordland crested penguins (tawaki). These penguins are easily identified by large bushy yellow “eyebrows” and are endemic to New Zealand. They were quite a distance away, but I managed to get a couple photos. The close-up photo of the fur seal and the close-up photo with two penguins were both taken by a fellow traveler (Bob) that had an actual camera with zoom and he was kind enough to share them with me. We continued our hike to the VERY remote Martins Bay Lodge, located right on the beach, where we arrived at dusk. I quickly settled into my incredible private en suite room, complete with birdsong and cozy wilderness views...then headed to the main Lodge dining area for a very special three-course meal and engaging conversation with our Hollyford Track guides.

See the penguin in the center, right above this caption??

Arriving at Martins Bay Lodge late in the day, I didn't feel I had ample time to explore the grounds, so I awoke quite early to walk the property at sunrise...then had a hot traditional English breakfast before meeting up with those doing the 12-mile Hollyford Track hike. Dan and I opted for the hike and my momma took a plane with several others back to Milford Sound. We started by taking a jet boat (up the Hollyford River and across Lake McKerrow) to the Hollyford Track trailhead...this was a well-maintained track through the Hollyford Valley, with rich beech forest, waterfalls, mountain views and unique vegetation. This was a full day hike, surrounded by birdsong and nature-filled paths. We finished the hike at 5:01 PM and then took a van ride back to Te Anau, where we checked into our lodging at Distinction Luxmore and had dinner.

Our hiking group and two guides (plus Bob), ready to start
our 12-mile day...

On the jet boat, ready to start the day...

We had a rare sighting of two yellow-crowned parakeet (kākāriki),
endemic to the islands of New Zealand.

Our hiking group with one of our wonderful guides (Robin).

Can you spot the The kererū (New Zealand wood pigeon)??
This is a species of pigeon native to New Zealand.

Dan finished the 12-mile hike first, followed shortly after by me...

Our entire group (minus our two guides) at the finish of our 12-mile hike.

The following day, we visited Doubtful Sound...and this was quite the journey...and a lot of transportation. We started out by walking to a bus station on the waterfront in Te Anau and boarding a bus to the Manapouri Visitor Centre. There’s no direct road access, so the only way you can to get to Doubtful Sound is a cruise from Manapouri across Lake Manapouri, followed by a bus trip over Wilmot Pass - New Zealand's most expensive (and quite scenic) road. Then we boarded the Patea Explorer for a 3-hour cruise on Doubtful Sound. A couple things about this journey - it wasn't as we were expecting...it was with three busloads full of people and was not as tranquil as we anticipated...and I got majorly motion sick with all the winding bus roads. I wasn't able to eat my picnic lunch on the boat...but once my stomach settled and I sat facing forward in the front of the boat, I did okay. I took a few photos, but mostly stayed inside where I could sit down. After the Milford Sound boat tour, we had all the same buses and boats to get back to Te Anau (a long day!). Once back in Te Anau, we had a really good dinner at The Fat Duck (I had fresh monkfish for the first time)...then I opted to walk the Te Anau Memorial Gardens on my own before heading back to the hotel.

Doubtful Sound from a scenic overlook...

Again, I hope you are enjoying my photo journey of the South Island...I am going to try to get what is left into one last travel log post....then it will be back to my usual creative programming. Thank you for visiting!