The Kindness of Kiwis + Into Fiordland

One you've spent some months in NZ, you quickly grow accustomed to the Kiwi generosity of spirit. We were reminded of it again today when we packed up the Conestoga wagon in Te Anau and drove 20 minutes south to Manapouri.

NZ sole again for breakfast

We checked into a campground just a ten-minute walk to the harbor where we'll be picked up tomorrow morning for our overnight trip into Doubtful Sound. The owner asked how many nights and I counted off on my fingers: tonight, then the overnight on the boat, then work comes in, plus another day. So, four nights, he said, but why don't we just make it three since you won't be here tomorrow.

Kiwis are the loveliest people!

Just behind the caravan through the trees is Lake Manapouri.

A fiord is defined as a u-shaped glacier-carved valley which has been flooded by the sea. The fourteen fiords that fringe this south-west corner of the South Island were 100,000 years in the making, with the final details added during the most recent ice age just 10,000 years ago... At 421 metres (1400 feet), Doubtful Sound is the deepest of New Zealand’s fiords. It’s a haven for nature, with resident bottlenose dolphins, fur seals and penguins.

The Maori attributed the creation of the fiords to a giant stonemason called Tute Rakiwhanoa, who hued out the steep sided valleys with his adzes.

Some people have asked what the weather will be like for this cruise into Fiordland National Park, but who knows. As a DOC worker said a couple of days ago: our weather is oceanic, not continental, so it shifts constantly.

Our route for the next couple of days (click here to view map if reading in email):

  

Here's the walk to the harbor. Tomorrow we'll board a boat that will take us to a bus that will take us to another boat. There are promises of lobster straight from the sound and blue cod we catch ourselves. Yes, we're excited! No internet, campers, so we'll see you on the connected side of the weekend.