Where the mountains are high and the fjords plunge deep

As we left Bergen last night, the Captain explained in laboured English that during the night we would be calling in to the Port of Florø at 03:30 departing again at 03:40 at which time the ship's horn would sound three times. We were not to be alarmed and this would not be the emergency horn.

Horn?? what horn? Both Donna and I slept right through it as I suspect almost all the other passengers did also. We are marvelling at the lack of noise transference into the cabins - they are all well noise-insulated.

We went up for breakfast at about 8:30 am as our excursion is not until 14:00 this afternoon. A full smorgasbord is available - cereals, breads, hot food, cold food, fruits, juices, teas and coffees.  We noticed yesterday that it can become a little like pigs at the trough, so we were happy to have a later breakfast today and went up about 9 am.  Breakfast is served until 10 am.

Today is a bucket list day.  You know the photo that is iconic Norwegian fjordland on all the postcards and travel blogs that you see?  Well, today that is where we are going. 

The cruise ships cruises the length of the Geirangerfjord.  The scenery is magical - towering cliffs that plunge into the water below.  Moraine slopes, saddles, faulted and folded mountains, ice and snow caps, single farms and tiny settlements clinging to small areas of grasslands.  We ask ourselves how you could get there with all your belongings, and what would make people want to live in such isolation - it is amazing!  We pass the famous Seven Sisters Falls, but today only four are at home (falling).  We can only imagine this cascade in full flow!

We dock in Geiranger just before 2pm.  This is a village in western Norway, at the head of the beautiful Geirangerfjord with 240 permanent residents. In the summer months, up to 6 cruise liners dock here bring up to 10,000 PER DAY to visit.
We leave the ship at at 2pm. Buses are waiting to collect us - too bad that they didn't warn us that it is a mad 400 metre dash in the drizzle. There are three buses waiting - one for the English/Norwegian, one for the German/French and the last for French language groups - goes to show you how many french people are on this cruise.
 

We are exploring the Geirangerfjord and Trollstigen Route - 'the Trolls Route' one of Norway's national tourist routes and on to Molde where we again join the ship at 11:15 pm.  For those who followed our blog in Romania, this is the equivalent of the Transfagarasan Pass. There are 11 switchback hairpin bends. More about that later. We drive up out of Geiranger and look back over the village to see our ship already sailing out and two of the other three docked in view at the head of the fjord.  While the views from down within the fjord are stunning, You really can't appreciate it fully until you are above it, looking down the length.

The scenery is stunning, wondrous even. None of these photos can really do it justice. We travel for a hour and can count 7 or 8 ranges in the distance, towering over us, big sky sort of scenery.  Each time there is a photo opportunity, this is what you see!

Then we turn a bend and we are near the top of the peak, above the treeline and with lakes and tumbling streams with water so clear we can see the stones at the bottom.  Walking trails abound, little cabins where I guess people shelter in bad weather.  Many of the cabins have grassed roofs, some planted, most wild! 
The snow poles can be as high as 8 metres - thats what you call snowfall!

We see more of the same, not same scenery.  I think that the blog would crash if I tried to load too many more photos!  There was four hours of driving through this scenery and we never bored of the changing views. One minute we were in drizzle, then sunshine and again into rain. This region is also a big cropping area for Norway, growing apples and pears, the best strawberries and raspberries (supposedly) as well as heaps of other berries.  There was evidence of recent grass cutting for winter hay also.


There is a ferry crossing at a quaint little village - and another to come later tonight as we near Molde. Finally we reach Trollstigen, 'the Trolls Road', the only permanent road in to Geiranger. 
There is another road but it is closed from November to May each year.  Even this road can be treacherous! 

There is a lookout above the road and we pulled in to the rest/tourist area at Stigrøra, 858 metres above sea level, to allow people off to take photos.  The road twists through eleven hairpin bends and an impressive bridge carries the road across the Stigfossen waterfall. The road is carved into the mountain and supported by stone walls. The walk out to the lookout is made of steel for the first 150m or so, and is quite slippery, so I don't venture out, but Donna did and she brought back some stunning

photos.  From here, we drive down those 11 hairpins. There is a woman sitting, window side who is terrified of the steep turns and the precipitous drops. Her 'friends' kept making comments about it.  Really?  Grow up (and these were Aussies). Still, if she had any sense, she would have moved to an inside seat and given up the window - there were plenty of seats free, so it wasn't like there was a reason to hog the window.

When we reach the bottom of the Trollstigen,we have a coffee break and served lovely fresh open rolls with cheese, tomato and cucumber or cheese and meat and cream filled folded waffles that are soooo good. One of those people near us on the bus is complaining about this dinner and is horrified to be told that this is a coffee break (it is after 6 pm by now) and that dinner will be served in Molde at 9:30 pm. I think that they are normally in bed by then!  We ate quickly so we could escape outside and get some photos of the plentiful trolls. Donna even found a friend!!

From here, we are back on the bus and headed toward Molde. We are now in hunting lands and there could be no doubt given the deer heads on one of the local buildings - I only managed to get half of them in the shot as we drove by.

Another ferry crossing (cheaper than bridges) and a few more hours of jaw breaking scenery and we reach the end of our day tour in Molde, Norway's town of roses.

We are booked in for a cod dinner served on a bed of mashed potato with julienned vegetables and a sweet apple, cream and cinnamon crumble for dessert. It was a delicious way to end a stunning day.  The Kong Harald pulls in at 10:45 pm and departs at 11:15. It was too late to blog last night!

The day that almost wasn't

Last night we came back to our room to book for Doubtful Sound.  Only we can't.  Surely both operators can't be fully booked out? Surely.  And then we are watching the local news and learn that there has been a major slip on the road that goes over the Wilmot Pass after 330 mm of rain in two hours yesterday.  Last night, 400 tourists were airlifted off

the mountain, well into the night!  And another 90 hikers from the Milford walking track when a stream rose 9 m.
Many people had suggested that the Doubtful Sound cruise was better than the Milford Sound one because of the extended trip - by boat from Lake Manapouri, then by coach over Wilmot Pass and on reaching Deep Cove, by catamaran for a three hour cruise that takes in the most dramatic scenery of Doubtful Sound.

However, the next trip is Thursday and even that is not a given and very dependent on the road being able to be cleared. So instead we look to book for Milford Sound.  And many of these tours are fully booked too - crikey! We manage to book a tour with Real Journeys departing at 1:45 pm. Not so bad as it is a three hour drive from Mossburn to Milford.


The hotel does not serve breakfast, and suggests the Dome Cafe around the corner.  We settle in to eggs bennie for Michael and poached eggs for me along with large coffees at 7:45.  We head off from Mossburn having prepared with the Bushmans (midges are well known at the Sound), some fruit and warm jackets.  Despite the weather forecast being for 22 degrees and sunny, it is raining and cool as we leave.  We join the road out of town

behind two coachloads of people - the first of many that we see today.

As we drive down, catching little glimpses of the sun high on the slopes, we wonder again at the forces of nature that can sculpt and create such magical landscapes. This part of the country is heavily grazed. If we thought that we saw a lot of sheep in a paddock yesterday, then it was nothing!  There was at least 1,000 sheep in one hectare. Seriously. And cattle and deer loads are heavy too.  Guess that with great rainfall and supposedly good weather (from time to time) the forage crops grow quickly.  There is certainly plenty of bales of hay around.

The vegetation is really interesting - from red tussocks, to small shrubs, to the occasional eucalypt in the dry sclerophyll forest and forest after forest of firs.  The tree line is really evident as we travel down the slopes into the Fiordland National Park and as the sky gets bigger with the huge stone cliffs, even the grasses and tussocks give up, leaving the rock to mosses, lichens and the odd fern or two.  Turns out that there is even rainforest down in the pockets, complete with ferns and vines and palms. 

Once we are on the southern side of the slopes, the weather magically clears - there is nary a cloud and the sun is beaming down like a real summer day.  Just. Magical.  And the scenery all of a sudden turns even more stupendous - if that is possible. 
There is a heap of traffic both in front of us and coming towards us. And there are many of them who have absolutely no idea how to drive in mountains. The average speed is 70 kph, although there are stretches on the flats that go up to 100 kph.  Corners are advisorily signed between 45 and 75 kph.  But the Asians do 20 kph. At every corner. Without fail. Makes for a frustrating drive.  There are plenty of signs that proclaim 'New Zealand roads are different.  Allow more time.'   From Mossburn to Milford Sound is only 176 kms but we were told by Tracey at the Mossburn Railway Hotel to allow 3 hours.  And it takes 3 hours almost to the minute.  Michael took photos from the car on the forward journey, knowing that there would be time to stop at the various vantage points on the way back.

The Milford Road is claimed to be the most scenic road in New Zealand and we are in no position to argue against that as it sure is a stunning drive.

Yet the whole trip down, behind some very nervous drivers, I cannot but wonder just where it was that Inga and Markus very nearly came to grief on their drive down this road some years ago.

We arrive at Milford Sound exactly as planned.  The literature says to plan for it to take 45 minutes to an hour to park your car, but St Frances continues to sit on my shoulder as a car pulls out in the closest car park as we arrive.  I'll never win the lottery,
but I'll always have a car park!  A 300 m walk to the terminal brings us in just before the 12:15 boat is about to leave, and as it is not fully booked, the staff agree to transfer us to this earlier departure.

There are only about 100 people on the Milford Monarch which is licensed to carry about 450, so there is plenty of space and moving room. We head out under the guidance of Captain Mack who provides just enough commentary to keep you informed without it being overbearing - there is plenty of silence broken only by the sound of the quiet engine, the waves and the birds to sit in awe looking skyward. And the sound of waterfalls.  There are only two permanent waterfalls into the Sound, but after rain like yesterday there can be hundreds of temporary falls.  We are even invited to claim a bit of

immortality by naming one of them today - so please see the M&M Falls!
Milford Sound is wettest place in New Zealand and records a massive 17 metres of rain a year.  Not a real problem until they get 330 mm in 2 hours!  There is quite a bit of debris in the Sound today, courtesy of that rain.  About 9 metres below the fresh water that feeds into the Sound from rain and snow-melts lies the salt water that comes in from the Tasman Sea.  As the fresh water is less dense than the salt water, it just sits atop and the waters never mix -isn't nature wondrous!

At the Bridal Veil Falls you can trace the Pembroke Fault line that runs all the way up the mountain and is responsible for 187 known earthquakes.

The Stirling Falls are very pure and provide the township of Milford with its water supply and also feeds a small hydro-electric power station to provide power.

Milford Sound is one of only two places in the world where in a commercial operation you can easily see a glacier from sea level- here you looking through Harrison Cove through the rainforested Harrison Valley up to Mt Pembroke with the Pembroke Glacier.  The other place is Patagonia in Argentina.

We see lots of birds, juvenile fur seals and very briefly a shy penguin - he was too quick for a photo.  All too soon we are docking back in the harbour and ready to hit the road again.

The trip back is much slower as we stop at almost every one of the many photo opportunities to capture these amazing views.  Can't fit them all here - so come on round when we get home if you want to see more. Our young waitress on the boat, Melissa suggested that we musn't miss the Mirror Pools (too windy for the effect by now) and the Te Anau Glow Worms that Donna also recommended.  Trouble is that they are at the start of the Doubtful Sound and so, there is no way we can get to them today either - maybe next trip!

There is a huge Chinese influence here also,so we opt for an early dinner in Te Anau and stop in at the Ming Garden restaurant conveniently located in Wong Way (true!) for a tasty meal.  Much of the restaurant is devoted to banquet tables - there are least 20 set for up to 20 people and there are a number of Chinese eating here.  Good omen and good food.

Back to the Mossburn Railway Hotel to do some washing and to have a wee dram to warm up while we do the blog.

Off to Mandeville tomorrow - another day that will thrill the boys!!!

Of glaciers and waterfalls and lakes and big open skies

Looking at the skies here, you would never know that NZ had had not one but two tropical cyclones in the space of a month.

And even though it is the height of summer, there have been fresh snow falls - creating lots of headaches for park ranges who are busy closing some of the walking tracks in anticipation of the localised flooding to start in the next day or two as that snow melts into the local streams.

We slept in until just after 8 this morning and once we heard Joan and Rodney up and about, rose and showered.  Joan was making a coffee and offered us one as well.  Nice, strong coffee, and hot!

There was a young Chinese couple staying in Joan's other room.  Saw nothing of them last night and this morning they surfaced just in time to leave.  Joan tried to engage them, to no avail.  The young lass was more talkative than her male partner, and we at least learned that they were from Shanghai!  Funnily enough, we ran into them a couple of times later in the day and the journey as well.  

Down in Franz Joseph looking in to flights over the glaciers, we sat in for breakfast to find them tucking in to thick steaks and salads. I know, I know, breakfast is the most important meal of the day - but that takes some beating!  Turns out that there is only one more flight today - this afternoon, and as we have a 5+ hour drive through to Arrowtown, 

the salesman's suggestion was that we (read Michael) takes the flight from the eastern side as we travel north later next week.

At the moment, NZ is filled with Chinese as travelling is seen as an auspicious way to start the Chinese New Year. And boy does their driving take the cake. Like many Japanese, they appear to be nervous of driving over 60 kph and when they come to a bend, any bend, the brakes are on and we crawl around at about 20 kph!  Makes for frustrated NZers and Aussies on the road.

And the other thing that the west side of the South Island is known for are its single lane bridges - actually gives northern Scotland a really good run for their money! I'll put you out of your misery and only include this one photo - although I am sure we have photos of 40 or more of them!

Michael is fascinated with glaciers and is keen to see both Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers.  So off to them we set.  He can get not quite within spitting distance at Franz Josef and is alarmed at how far it has retreated.  All the literature from the local Environment Department tells us that the viewing vantages are now all many hundreds of metres from the face of the Glacier. 
At the Fox Glacier a little further south, the path is closed even further back so he opts to climb to the top of the Sentinel Rock to get a good vantage point. Again it is shared with lots of Chinese - many whom are travelling with young children - predominantly girls.

Once he has had his fill of slowly creeping dirty ice, we continue our journey south.
The impact of not one but two cyclones is apparent in some places, with these buildings flattened.  Not sure whether Fehi or Gita did the damage - guess it really doesn't matter does it? 

The climate on the western side is much wetter and I guess it must also be a little warmer - there are myriads of fens and palms right along this stretch and heaps of waterfalls along the way and I think we call in at most to have a look.

There are some pretty amazing names given to these waterfalls too - Bride's Veil, Ninety Foot Falls, Roaring Billy Falls among others.  Along with Cyclone Gita came some rain (and snow) and so the many of the waterfalls are again at full flow. The fall into shallow and deep pools which topple into streams that eventually find their way to the sea.  

Rivers in this part of New Zealand meander across wide pebble filled beds - found only in a few parts of the world.  In the spring when the winter snows are melting, these becoming rushing torrents of water, covering the breadth of the beds, but for now, they quietly burble along, lazily washing over the stones, without the energy to carry them to the shorelines.

Before too long, we have come away from the mountain areas and are now travelling along the coast.  The skies are mainly clear with just a few picturesque cotton wool clouds for effect.  The waters are crystal clear and the most amazing aqua colour.  The sun is high, and gee, everything is right in my world right now!

We stop at a couple of the beaches - too cold for swimming but truly a welcome sight.  And the smell of the salt water is at once uplifting.

And while Paris and Venice and Sibiu might have their bridges of locks, the west coast of New Zealand have lots of cairns with quartz stones carved with lovers names and dates.  They dot the beaches and I wonder what some future archaeologist might make of them when in millenia to come they are washed up across a wide expanse! 

This is a very stormy part of the coast, open to prevailing onshore winds and the trees lean towards the inland, having been pushed and pushed by the wind.


Anyone who has a link to New Zealand has told us that we need to try the whitebait fritters.  Today, we found the first evidence of these little gems.  Caught in nets at the mouths of rivers in a short ten-week season, these little delicacies fetch $95 per kilo!  Mind you, there is a 25% tax on the commercial catch as well.
We pulled in to the Curly Tree Cafe where we do as instructed and honk twice and are soon joined by the gorgeous smiling Rachel who promptly pulls the lid off a smoking BBQ grill when we are ready to have our Whitebait PATTIES (not fritters, OK) which are simply a heap of whitebait mixed with a little egg to keep them together - think omelette like.
At $10 each, these small pancake-sized patties are not cheap, but served on warmed, buttered white bread, they are heavenly.  Locals eat them with mint sauce. We just used a small squeeze of lemon.
Wash them down with Bundaberg Brewed Drinks - another link to home. Around now Glenn arrives home and I cheekily comment that his cause is a lost one when he pushes a lawnmower over the stones on the drive.  He comes over for a chat and we soon learn more than we ever knew about whitebaiting.  Up for a chat any time Brian and Sally!!

By now it is well after 4 pm and we still have a few hours drive to reach Arrowtown. 
Rachel and Glenn had told us that if we go over the Crown Range Road we can save half an hour on the journey around the base of the range.  Might be so, but there are twists and turns all the way up the range that mean our average speed is between 40 and 50 kph.  Still, the scenery is amazing.  BIG open skies.  Rounded hills that lock in to each other. Land slips (including some very recent ones). Snow covered peaks at the back,and as we top the Coronet Peak range, the sun is setting over Lake Hayes - what a majestic end to the day.



We pull in to Scooter's Place found on AirBnB after 8 pm and she tells us that we should still be able to get a meal in town.  Off we head and call in to the only place we still find cooking - Postmasters where we feast on local seafood.
Scooters Place is stunning and very new, having only been open for 2 months.  Sadly, we only got this booking because of a cancellation and they cannot accommodate us for longer. :(