A very crazy day. A day of contrasts and opposites, of frustration and elation. A day of most awful rainy and very windy weather and yet, a most perfectly warm, still, sunny day.
As I last said, we were getting up at the crack of dawn, and what beautiful dawn it was!
The frustration began when we boarded the bus to Milford Sound. We so enjoy riding around at our leisure, stopping where we wish, especially when we see a lovely picturesque spot. Such is not the way on a bus.
The ride to Milford Sound took three hours. The environment changed most dramatically within the first thirty minutes, and so did the weather. As I reported yesterday, the road is only open to convoys of buses, and honestly, we can see why.
We are told that in 48 hours, the area received more than 5 feet of rain, which made the raging river alongside the road overflow and take large portions of pavement with it.
Similar weather was taking place now, before our eyes. I have never seen such brute force in a river; you would not dream of white-water rafting in it! The reason being that the deluge was depositing so much rain on the mountaintops, that every crack in the sheer granite facades was turned into incredible, forceful waterfalls, all depositing their water onto the river. It was a unique, breathtaking sight; in all our travels we had never seen nor experienced anything like it.
But the bus kept on rolling, keeping up with the convoy. Any picture you wanted to take, had to be shot through its windows, which were covered with the rivulets and huge drops of water, at very fast speeds. You can imagine my frustration. This could have been a dream come true, being able to catch such magnificence of nature. Instead, I ended up with dozens of photos that could only be erased.
If you’ve seen Avatar, this is where much of it was shot. It is a most unique, otherworldly landscape. Magnificent trees have so much moss on them that wildest Alaska cannot even compare. Steep craggy mountains staggered upon one another! I’ll share some pictures that, with few exceptions, are barely salvageable.
When we reached Milford Sound, things did not get much better. It was pouring buckets, the wind was blowing angrily and a thick fog was blanketing much of what was to be the most exhilarating destination of our entire trip.
We took a cruise boat to tour the majestic fjord, which it sailed in its entirety, reaching the Tasman Sea, where it turned around then headed back to our waiting bus.
It was impossible to stay outside, the wind causing the rain to envelop you in massive sheets of water. I did manage to get some shots of waterfalls, but the majesty of the fjord itself remained shrouded in thick fog.
We took a nap on the bus ride back to Te Anau. Once back, we were in a whole other world. No wind, the sun was shining bright, we are told that it had all day. We walked along the lake; it was so hot we could have disrobed entirely; people laying on the beach sunning themselves. It’s as though we had taken a trip to Alaska and returned to Florida, all in the space of a day.
We decided to take a drive to the town of Manapouri, 20 kilometers down a picturesque road. The minute town sits on a lake that bears its name. It’s a lovely place and we opted to have dinner there.
Looking at the mountains in the background, it was hard to imagine that, just beyond them, in Fiordland, there exists a world that is so dramatically different, another planet, weather-wise as well as in topography. Now we realized why there are no towns there. It exists only to be glimpsed at briefly, to marvel at God’s creativity.
We are now back at the Wilderness Cottage, surrounded not by craggy, spectacularly mountains, but by soothing rolling hills of greenery, that are equally pleasant, if not as affecting. And lovely creatures are at pasture mere feet from the porch where I’m writing.
Talk to you tomorrow.
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