Finally in Fiordland

Ever since I made it to the South Island and left Queenstown on a coach heading for the coast, the stunning countryside speckled with sheep and country villages, and the awe inspiring craggy, remote mountains have left me with a permanent smile on my face.

Our first day in Milford Sound could not have been more beautiful. Full, bright sunshine and air so clear the mountain peaks seemed to jump out in relief against the blue sky. I drove a Zodiac with passengers past a fur seal haul out, in front of cascading waterfalls at least 100 feet high, under plunging granite walls where tenacious mosses, grasses, wildflowers and ferns cling to the vertical rock, and around Asian looking red beech covered points.

Coming out of the Sound while enjoying lunch in the sunshine on the back deck, we turned south along the west coast to head for Doubtful Sound. The outer coast is reminiscent of Alaska with steep mountains falling straight down to the waters’ edge, but the ecology is so different without bears, otters, wolves, or any land mammals. New Zealand has only two land mammals – two small, rare species of bats – and the rest of the ecology is dominated by birds, many flightless (like the kiwi) and therefore vulnerable and facing extinction thanks to the introduction of rats, stoats, dogs, cats, possum etc from the rest of the world.

For now, I look forward to another day of cruising in Fiordland. Fair winds.