fiordland | Words and Light

Posts Tagged ‘fiordland’

Analog: Milford Sound, New Zealand

Posted in Analog, Personal, Photography, Travel, tagged fiordland, milford sound, new zealand, where the stars are strange on March 13, 2018| Leave a Comment »

If you’re driving down the two-lane highway that’s the only paved road in New Zealand’s Fiordland National Park, you can have only one destination — after all, the highway ends at Milford Sound.

Milford Sound, or Piopiotahi in Maori, is one of several fiords in Fiordland. It’s by far the most accessible, and is by some measures New Zealand’s most famous tourist attraction.

We booked a late-afternoon two-hour cruise to allow us plenty of time to make stops along the way to Milford Sound, plus explore the area on foot before embarking on the boat.

Because our boat was so small, the cruise operators were able to steer us fairly close to waterfalls and other features. They also took us out into the open Tasman Sea for maybe 15 minutes, which was enough to churn my stomach. Other cruise companies do offer longer or overnight durations in larger boats, which wouldn’t be as affected by the water currents.

I was nursing my second cup of tea inside the boat lounge to try to soothe my roiling stomach when, very unexpectedly, the sun broke through the clouds for the first time that entire day. I immediately jumped from my seat and ran to the stern, where I captured these last two frames before the clouds obscured the sun once again.

And, just a moment later:

Thank goodness I had several frames left at the end of that roll of film — these final two photos are among my very favorites from the entire trip.

A selection of these photos can be purchased as prints at prints.christhedunn.com.

Read Full Post »

Analog: Fiordland National Park, New Zealand

Posted in Analog, Personal, Photography, Travel, tagged fiordland, new zealand, where the stars are strange on February 19, 2018| Leave a Comment »

Of New Zealand’s 14 national parks, Fiordland National Park is the largest, arguably the most isolated and perhaps the least touched by humans.

It’s stunning.

A single, two-lane highway runs through the park, with only a few unpaved roads branching off. There are a couple established tracks for multi-day trampers, but otherwise, much of the park is inaccessible to visitors. Even before the development of the modern tourism industry, Fiordland has remained largely unmodified by humans because of the steep, glacier-carved terrain as well as moody weather (an annual average of 200 rainy days!) and the resulting thick vegetation.

We drove from Te Anau north to Milford Sound, where we had an afternoon cruise scheduled. On the way, we made a couple stops, including a brief detour down Hollyford Road to hike a bit on the Lake Marian track, from which several falls are visible.

Unfortunately, we didn’t get anywhere near Lake Marian itself — roundtrip, the entire track would have taken at least a few hours.

We did stop at “the Chasm” before arriving at Milford Sound. The Cleddau River’s thundering waters have, over time, carved out steep channels and falls in the rock that are visible from a couple foot bridges.