New Zealand Road Trip - December 10, 2007 (7)

December 10

If you go to this link, you will find a map of Fiordland for a bit of perspective on our few days spent there. Also, I will point out that Fiordland is a World Heritage Area.

Manapouri Lake, Doubtful Sound and the Manapouri Power Station

Manapouri is about 30 minutes south of Te Anau. This is where the tour of Manapouri Lake, Doubtful Sound and the Manapouri Power Station begins and this is where we began our day. It was a LONG day!

First a bit of wildlife.

Fish in water by boats.

Chaffinch.

Duck standing on chain in water by boats.

The boat at the centre back is the one we got on.

Down the gangplank!

The cruise/tour begins at Manapouri Lake. The boat took us across the lake. Following are a few pix of the lake.





On the other side of the lake, we came to the Manapouri Power Station. We didn't tour it until our return trip, but this is to put it in context.

We got off the boat and on a bus, which drove us over the mountains to the inland end of Doubtful Sound. Driving pix:



At the end of the drive, we got on another boat and started our cruise of Doubtful Sound. You can see that in crossing to the Sound through the mountains, we also crossed the mountain divide and the weather changed. From the divide on, it was seriously overcast, often rainy and of course windy out on the water. My raincoat came in handy again! These are Doubtful Sound pix:






Fiordland Crested Penguins. Fishing shack. Crayfish pots are stacked up behind but they don't show up in the pix.


Here we are getting to open water. It was pretty cold, windy, rainy.


Fur seals.

Heading back inland.
We got off the boat, on the bus, drove back over the mountains to Manapouri Lake and - wait for it!

THE POWER STATION!!!

Remember the little chat about Bluff and the aluminum smelter on the Dec. 8 posting? Well, this is where the power for that smelter comes from.

This sign was on the Te Anau Lake beach and it explains that the power station uses the gradient from Te Anau Lake to Manapouri Lake to generate power. There is no dam. They constructed a tunnel system between the lakes and then the ocean (Doubtful Sound). The only part of the facility that you can see is what is shown in the pix below. Everything else is underground. I'm not an engineer, but I think this is pretty impressive. Check out the Manapouri Power Station website for more details.

We were told that 70% of the power generated here is used by the aluminum smelter in Bluff.

In a year of normal rainfall, approximately 70% of New Zealand’s generation is produced by hydro, 25% from thermal, with the rest coming from geothermal, wind
and biogas.
from http://www.trustpower.co.nz/Investors/NewZealandElectricityIndustry.aspx#ElectricityGenerationNZ

Discharge tunnel on Doubtful Sound side.

The above ground exterior (Manapouri Lake).
We were driven down to the plant inside the mountain.

Turbines. Note the rock walls - it's down inside the mountain.
Leaving the power station back on Manapouri Lake for our return to Manapouri, then on to our motel - pretty tired after a long day!

New Zealand Road Trip - December 9, 2007 (6)

December 9

Te Anau

Why did we want to get to Te Anau? It is the staging area for tours of Fiordland National Park. Mountains in the area reach elevations of up to 2,750 m (9,020 ft) and plunge to deep fiords - 14 of them. We all thought this was the most breathtaking scenery we encountered on our trip. Craig had booked us for a day trip on Milford Sound. It was about a 2 hour drive from Te Anau to the launch site of the cruise boat we went on.

The town of Te Anau is situated on one of the largest lakes in the country - aptly named Lake Te Anau.


Lake Te Anau from the town waterfront area.

Milford Sound

Following are all from Milford Sound - comments only where required. Most are self explanatory - just great scenery shots! This was a long day so there are lots of pix. Enjoy!

The peak on the right is Mitre Peak "so called because of its resemblance to a bishop's mitre." It is one of the most famous landmarks of Fiordland and probably the most photographed. We took a few pix of it ourselves. And it appears on the front cover of BOTH the tour books that I bought before we left!




This is the boat we were on. The masts are "decorative" - not functional. We were out on the top deck for the trip. It was a nice day, as you can see by the pix. It did get windy further out.


Mary.



Mitre Peak.


Mary and Craig.


This one is supposedly shaped like a lion and I believe the name reflects that fact in Maori.


Craig and Mary.

Craig, Mary and Joe. This may be the only pix of the three of us. We just didn't think about getting too many.

Fur seals.

New Zealand Christmas tree.

The pohutukawa or New Zealand Christmas Tree, metsiderosis excelsa, is one of the most outstanding plants of the entire New Zealand flora. A tougher or more adaptable coastal tree would be hard to find, for the pohutukawa will gain a foothold in the most inhospitable of rock crevices where continual lashings of salt-laden winds and drenchings of salt water are the norm, and life giving fresh water and nutrients are scarce in the extreme.

(from http://www.opotiki.com/data/pohutuka.htm)

Fiordland Crested Penguins. This is not an excellent pix, but they were far away - at least that's our excuse. The point is that these are "wild" and as the name suggests, local to the area.

As we reached open water at the mouth of the fiord, the next land would be Australia. Here Craig is waving to girlfriend Rhonwyn, who is back at home in Tazmania working for the summer.

Now a few words about my dopey raincoat. As it turned out, it was probably the best thing that I brought. As you can see from the pix, it was a very sunny day. What you can't see is that when we got close to the open ocean, the wind was very strong and nippy. This coat kept me nice a warm. I wasn't the fashion queen on this trip!

Now we are heading back.

Fur seals.

Waterfall. We went right up to it so the spray would hit us. One Maori legend is that if you get in the spray you will wake up looking ten years younger. In my case, I don't think it worked!

Another waterfall. There had not been rain for a couple of weeks, which apparently is a long time for the area. Usually, with more rain, the falls we saw are more voluminous and there are usually more of them.

Here we are back to Mitre Peak.

Craig - on the way back to Te Anau.

Waterfalls.

Windy road - yup - this is what we were driving on - on the "wrong" side!

Mirror Lakes

Craig had us stop at Mirror Lakes on the way back. It seemed more like "mirror swamp" to me, a lowland. But it was very pretty and if you look closely you'll see that the water is crystal clear. We could see fish swimming and all the plants, etc. below the surface.

Paradise Shelducks.

Back at Lake Te Anau

Glowworm Caves

Later that same day, we went to the Glowworm Caves. Craig had been there before and was quite smitten with these little creatures. I can't say that I shared his enthusiasm. Photos weren't allowed, so if you are interested in more, check out the following:

Glowworms -
Arachnocampa luminosa

Glowworms are the larval stage in the life of an insect called the fungus gnat. Although they are most spectacular in caves, glowworms are also quite common outside - they can be found wherever conditions are damp, food is in good supply and there is an overhanging wall. The scientific name of the New Zealand species is Arachnocampa luminosa. Similar glowworms can be found in the south-east of Australia.