Amazing Fiordland! – January 2007

Amazing Fiordland!
It is widely considered that New Zealand’s most dramatic scenery and untouched wilderness lie within Fiordland. It was successive glacial action that largely shaped the landscape, and its wild beauty is showcased to stunning effect in alpine vistas characterized by carved-out snow-capped mountains, crystal-clear lakes, towering granite cliffs, captivating fiords, and untamed waterfalls tumbling up to hundreds of meters into virgin forested valleys. Its glaciated valleys and deep ravines are dramatic and breathtaking. The beauty and awesome scale of Nature is truly unsurpassed.

It was into this scenery that we plunged when we left Te Anau and cycled through Fiordland as far as Milford Sound, where the road dead-ends. The alpine road to Milford is considered to be one of the world’s most scenic, and we were not left wondering why. The steep cliffs that rise sharply from clear mountain rivers are washed with abundant rain and waterfalls that tumble uninterrupted from towering heights above. It rains an average of between 6-9 m. per year in Fiordland (depending upon the location), and thousands of waterfalls appear when it rains, turning the whole area into a Land of Water. The clouds and fog only add to the intrigue and the mystique, although it is just as beautiful and impressive on clear days, when the tops of the mountain peaks can be seen. The sheer magnitude of the massive landscape is awe-inspiring.

Fiordland is a place of powerful, raw, and untouched scenic beauty. Because the Maori could not imagine such beauty occurring naturally, many legends exist to explain its formation and naming. The legend says that the demi-god Tu-te-raki-whanoa carved out the landscape and the fiords with his adze. By the time he reached Milford Sound in Fiordland, he had perfected his technique and made an impossibly beautiful place. The goddess of the underworld visited Milford Sound and was so impressed and alarmed by its beauty that she worried that people would want to stay and would no longer descend to the Underworld. And so she created the pesky sandfly to encourage people to move on from Milford.

Fiordland, in fact, lies close to the alpine fault where two plates of the Earth’s crust meet and has been uplifted, folded, faulted, and submerged many times over millions of years. Glaciers have covered the area at times over the last two million years, creating U-shaped valleys, of which many are now fiords or lakes (A fiord is a U-shaped valley with steep cliffs that is created by glacial action and characterized by shallow entrances that slope quickly seaward to deep water.). There are hundreds of lakes in the area, as well as 14 fiords (mistakenly named “sounds” by early European explorers, which differ to fiords in that they are formed by rivers instead of glaciers).

From the green lowland pastures and tussock country surrounding Te Anau, we cycled past native bush to the rocky mountains and sheer cliffs towards the mountain pass. Much of the area’s forest clings to sheer rock walls covered with a thin layer of moss and lichen. Beech forest is dominant and snow tussocks prevail above the 1000-meter bushline, along with mountain daisies and buttercups.

On our first night out of Te Anau, the sky cleared around 11:30 P.M., just as we were getting ready to hit the sack. And to our surprise, we saw the most amazing sight ever! Right in front of us, directly between two mountains, was the incredibly and unbelievably bright McNaught comet, which took up a full 10% of the night sky with its 55 million km. long tail!!! We had heard of the comet, but had great chance to see it when it wasn’t hidden behind mountains or cloud cover. It was the chance of a lifetime to see a comet like that! (For those who want to see photos of the comet, go to the following address: http://www.spaceweather.com/comets/gallery_mcnaught_page18.php or look at our photo gallery of Milford Sound.

The last 15 km. stretch of road before the top of the mountain pass saw hundreds of waterfalls dropping sharply from the steep cliffs that rose from the river. The alpine green and red kea parrot entertained us at the summit, but when we rose from our tents in the morning, we found it in the process of chewing Belou’s bike seat to bits. It had already destroyed Stephane’s seat cover, and oddly enough, the plastic bag in which I had left fruit (while totally ignoring the fruit itself!). The road drops steeply after the tunnel, between sheer rock walls, which are a continuous curtain of waterfalls during and after the rain. It poured in buckets on the last day of our ride, which was a 17-km. descent all the way down to Milford. The waterfalls fell fast and furious, and seemed to have multiplied by the thousands overnight. When we arrived in Milford, we were soaked through, but were not dissuaded from booking a cruise on Milford Sound for the next morning, as the locals say it is even more impressive and mysterious when it rains.

And it is true that it is breathtaking and inspiring, even during wet weather. Our two-hour cruise on a small boat took us around the fiord and out to the Tasman Sea and back, past literally thousands of tumbling waterfalls and mist-shrouded cliffs and mountains. We didn’t have the luck of seeing any of the fiord’s bottlenose dolphins or Fiordland crested penguins, but we did see fur seals. The sheer granite cliffs tower into the heavens at an average of 1200 m. above sea level, while plunging steeply at the same time up to 290 m. into the deep clear waters below. The occasional rain didn’t drown our spirits in the least. The cruise was absolutely magnificent and was an excellent way to see an unforgettable and exciting part of Fiordland. The 1695-m. high Mitre Peak, the tallest of such peaks in the world to rise from the water, was hiding in the clouds, but the sheer steepness of its sides, along with the thousands of waterfalls tumbling all around us, was impressive enough! Milford Sound is so beautiful that it was even described by Rudyard Kipling as the eighth wonder of the world!

Fiordland is part of the South West New Zealand World Heritage Area, and to read more about its history, formation, flora and fauna, please choose “UNESCO sites” from under the New Zealand flag.