However, I don't want you to think I am leading a boring life by any means! In fact, this weekend my roommates and I traveled to Doubtful Sound in the southwestern corner of New Zealand. While it is called a sound it is really a fjord. A fjord (pronounced fee-or-d) is a long, narrow, deep inlet of the sea between high cliffs typically formed by the submergence of a glaciated valley- to be exact. In more simple terms it is an amazing place carved out by glaciers a really, really long time ago. You may be wondering why it is called Doubtful Sound if it is really a fjord, that I can not tell you. What I can tell you is a sound is very similar and that when it was first discovered they named it wrong, same as Milford Sound.
Now that you know what Doubtful is I can tell you all about our journey getting there. Towards the end of last week our spring weather vanished and it seemed like the Iowans had brought along our yucky weather. It was rainy and cold outside. When we woke up Thursday morning the hills were COVERED in snow (luckily none down by us!) and the weather went down hill from there. Friday morning we awoke to the a rainy day and to make matters worse, we had hung clothes to dry the night before. None the less shortly after the school day was over we hit the road and started our trek to Manapouri.
Our drive was snow covered, but luckily we had a good driver, Alex, who always seems to get stuck driving at the worst times! We made pretty good timing and arrived in Manapouri around 8:30. We stayed at a little holiday park/campground in a tiny, and very cheap, cabin. Though it wasn't the nicest of accommodations, we had a lot of fun there and only 200m away from our cabin there was a bar. Since it happened to be the fifth of November the whole town (of 300 people) was outside the bar around a huge bonfire celebrating Gui Fawkes day. It was so much fun. Along with the fire there was fireworks, an island dancer and a fire thrower.
Our scary drive! Ekk!
Our quaint and cold cabin.
The girls at the bonfire.
The next morning we woke up and got ready to catch our bus to Doubtful Sound. When we got outside we sadly noticed the ground was covered in snow. It definitely felt more like we were at home and not in New Zealand. I was beginning to wonder if this trip would be worth my money. On top of the snow is was freezing and foggy. Nonetheless was I still excited to see what the day had to bring. Our first bus took us to a boat which took us across Lake Manapouri. It was about an hour ride and because of the fog it was hard to see the beautiful scenery surrounding us. When we got off the boat we got onto our second bus which proceeded to take us underground to the Manapouri Power Station. Along the way our driver informed us that in the winter it is unusal to see as much snow as they had and it is less then a month till summer. At point we almost got stuck and he had to go out and put chains on our tires. It was a scary moment as we were on the pass of the mountain with no where to go but down! Finally we made it to the Manapouri Power Station. It is an underground power station and probably New Zealand's biggest engineering accomplishment built back in the 60's. Sounds a wee big dorky, but was a very cool thing to see.
The winder wonderland we awoke too.
Our Scary drive up the mountain!
Finally in the fjord! (Out of order, sorry!)
The power station
Our group on the second boat (Also in the wrong order)
After the power station we got onto our second boat which took us into Doubtful. It was beautiful, freezing cold and raining, but still amazing! Being there was very comparable to Jurassic Park. Everything was untouched. It rains about 200 days a year there which makes for 100's of gorgeous waterfalls. The mountains were covered in trees. Every once in a while you would see a bare spot or a spot only covered in moss. The mountains have no top soil so the trees are simply held in place by each other, like they are 'holding hands.' If there is an earthquake or something else to disrupt them, they all come down. Like an avalanche of trees! Eventually they grow back, but it takes about 150 years to reach full size again.
The whole cruise was amazing, but my two favorite parts were the waterfalls and seeing penguins. For those of you who don't know, I am in love with penguins. I think they are the cutest little animals. Lucky me, I got to see four Fiordland's Crusted Penguins! Needless to say I was excited as a kid on Christmas morning! I also loved seeing and standing under one of the waterfalls! It was beautiful and a really fun experience, even in the cold weather. Our tour guide kept talking about how clean the water was, so Ellen and I also decided to fill our glasses up and take a drink!
Excited to be on the boat!
Drenched after filling up our glasses!
Cute little penguins!
Happy as can be!
Before we got soaked (not sure why they are out of order...)
My reaction to seeing penguins outside of a zoo!
After a few hours in the fjord we began our journey back home. This included going back down the snow covered mountain which was surprisingly less scary, we even got to play in the snow! After getting back to our cabin we went back to the bar for a yummy kiwi dinner and headed home in the morning. The weather on the way home was much nicer and we realized how much beautiful scenery we missed on the way there!
I felt right at home!
Krystal made a snowman!
The view across from our cabin Sunday morning.
Our drive home along the coast.
One of my favorite things about New Zealand is how it keeps changing. Usually it is the scenery you drive by, but this weekend is was the weather. Hard to believe all of these pictures were taken with 72 hours of each other! If you are still reading, many thanks! This was a long blog, but what can I say, I had an amazing weekend and felt the need to share it all!
Peace and blessings!
Michelle
Penguins!!! So jealous
ReplyDelete-Chelsea