Combining with meeting my parents and traveling with them for 4 days made the best time in my journey yet!
Considered by many the most unique and beautiful part of NZ, Fiordland, which situated on the south - west side of the southern island, is a great natural reserve. It consists of fiords - huge mountains coming out of the ocean, forming deep and steep sounds.
The inland mountains of the reserve are enormous and affected by alpine climate.
Annual 9 meters of rainfall (only 40cm in Tel-Aviv!), spread on 260 days, results beautiful savage rain-forests, awesome waterfalls all over and very clean streets in Te - Anau :)
Te - Anau lake
Te - Anau main street
Te - Anau, a small and pretty town, which provides good ground base for trackers, was our home while doing the short - term activities Fiordland has to offer.
On the first day, i went on the Milford sound cruise. An impressive sample of these amazing sounds. Getting near the massive walls makes you feel like the smallest ant!
While sailing we saw some lazy seals sunbathing and friendly group of dolphins, which stayed around our boat for quite a long time.
The 2 hours of road trip back to Te - Anau was almost as stunning as the cruise itself. I'll let the photos talk...
Milford sound
Milford sound
Milford sound - the small white dot is a big ship
road trip to Te - Anau
road trip to Te - Anau
The next day was dedicated for touring Te - Anau lakeside routs. I also bought a new filter for my camera - you may notice the difference in future photos... :)
Te - Anau lake (without the new filter...)
To have a glimpse of the routbern track, I climbed to key summit. Stunning views for small effort :)
key summit
My "main dish" in Fiordland was the Keplet track. I know i'm repeating myself here, but this was definitely the best track i ever had. 80 km of absolutely brilliant views!!! The first day was lakeside rain-forest rout and climbing 1300 meters high mountain. Once I've reached the peak, the forest was replaced with alpine terrain - short yellow bush and black rocks.
The second day was the most amazing one. Walking on top of snowy mountain chain - from one peak to another. Brilliant 360 degrees panoramic views of all the mountains, vallys around and the beautiful turquoise Te - Anau lake.
The 2 following days I walked in wild and thick bush, along beautiful creeks and waterfalls. The path was much easier.
I was very lucky weather-wise. Haveing 4 days in a row with no rain at this area is uncommon.
It would all be perfect if not for the horrible sand flys! These small bastards attack you by the millions and sting as long as you don't walk fast!
My next destination was Dunedin, where i planed to meet my parents.
This ride lasted 2 days through the "southern scenic road" and the Catlins area.
The Catlins look as if god gathered all the best sea phenomenons into one place!
Driving along the coastline, i got to see defferent unique stuff every few miles: seals, sea lions, prehistoric fossilized forest, lighthouses, amazing cliffs and more! here are some samples...
sea lion at cannibal bay - one of these beasts started chasing me!!!
Nugget point
one of Catlins waterfalls
On the 21/1/07 I arrived Dunedin and met my parents. Three months has passed since i last seen them so it was very exciting! It was so great to see them here - on the other side of the globe :)
The following 4 days i slept in fancy hotels and ate non cheap food - in restaurants! :)
Although there were only senior age people on my parents tour (my mom was considered a child...), it was quite nice.
We drove from Dunedin through the Catlins and "the south scenic road" to Te-Anau, where we had the Milford sound cruise (you're probably experiencing a de ja voo right now - the matrix was not broken, i just did the same thing all over again).
Next - Queenstown!
The non stop tourists city. Not only unlimited activity options, this city has stunning scenery as well. We went on jeep ride to special river where once people used to mine gold. I did some gold panning and got my first gold piece! :)
Next in line was jet boating. A spaceship-like boat for 14 people which goes up to 80km/h in narrow rocky river paths - only few inches away from bluffs and rocks! adrenalin "to the face" :)
At the same day we also managed to go up to Bob's peak by cabelcar - brilliant views of lake Wakatipu and the great dramatic mountains.
gold panning
jet boating (with dad)
Queenstown as seen from Bob's peak
On the next day my parents continued their trip by heading up north. We said our goodbyes and i joined Adi and Veronica (a sweet german girl which traveled with us the last two weeks). This whole day was devoted for site-seeing over landscapes where they filmed "the lord of the ring" movies (pretty much everywhere here). This area is about as beautiful and impressive as Fiordland.
After jumping from one place to another for such long time, I decided to stay in a farm for a while. In the middle of nowhere, neer a ghost town called middlemarch, i stayed in a farm owned by a guy named Dean. It's a deer and cattle farm and Dean plan to turn his house into backpackes. So we worked around the farm about 3 hours a day in retern for free accommodation and food - cool and very affordable :)
Dean was great and we had lots of fun working and hanging there. I even went hunting with him! (obviously i didn't kill anything...)
the farm
our neighbor farm watch goat - the sweetest and funniest thing i've ever seen
the house
While staying at the farm, I went to Dunedin for an overnight trip.
This city is amazing. despite how big it is you don't see too much traffic and crowd. Plus, the design of the buildings is very impressive.
I got lots of chocolate in a cadbury chocolate factory tour, visited the well preserved Loranch castle and even got to see wild albatrosses and penguins!!!!!
On the next day i'v been to Boldwin street - the steepest street in the world! it's actually so steep, tourist who try "climbing" it sometimes give up on half way :)
Dunedin
Loranch castle
Time is running short for me over here... My flight is in two weeks!!! The good news is that I practicly finished the rout i've planed. Only got Christchurch and mount Cook left.
Now I'm back in Invercargill (for the third time) not because I like it so much, but because there is a Paua (Abalony) shell factory I need to visit (business stuff).
When I'm done here I'll start heading north to Christchurch area, perhaps work in another farm for some time.
