It seems no matter where you turn in New Zealand there's something beautiful. Snow-capped mountains, pristine lakes, long white clouds streaking the sky and capturing the golden-red rays of the setting sun, aqua-green rivers as clear as crystal, rugged gorse-covered slopes, dense wooded forests, waterfalls, snow fields... It's all there.
As an Australian I'm not too far from Aotearoa, the Maori name for New Zealand, although it took me many years to finally reach it and now I have - Well, I regret not going there sooner.
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There seems to be a stigma with many Australian's when it comes to travelling to New Zealand and now, after going there, I can't for the life of me imagine why. It is simply stunning. Sure, it's not the cheapest place to holiday, however certainly holds everything Faith and I could ask for in a vacation, certainly in respect of nature and adventure. If you haven't been you'll not understand; If you haven't been, you should!
We were on the way to Milford Sound from Te Anau where we were staying for a few days. Te Anau is a sleepy town right on the edge of a huge lake with an amazing view of the mountains and surrounded by lush farming land which the locals put to good use.
It's a beautiful drive, a very winding and narrow road in places though. We checked the road conditions early as it closes due to snow, ice and landslides sometimes, and then took off, snow chains packed away but ready to go if we needed to fit them.
Along the way there is plenty to see, all beautiful. As we went deeper into the Fiordland National Park the landscape changed often, but it was always spectacular. Of course, as the driver I needed to pay close attention to the road; This is not a place one wants to loose concentration as the implications of doing so would probably be catastrophic. So, we pulled over a lot so we could both enjoy the scenery and take some walks.
One of the spots we pulled into was by pure fluke. I saw a sign to a campsite and a nice little track leading away off the bitumen into the forest. We didn't have a 4x4, just a 2x4 Toyota Rav4, but when has that ever stopped the G-dog from hitting the dirt! We turned down the track to find some adventure. (The road wasn't a 4x4 only road).
A few minutes down the little track we came to Cascade Creek campsite and it looked simply amazing. A wide creek, very shallow, ran along side and the mountains rose up all around. It was perfect, even despite me always saying perfect doesn't exist. Maybe I should call it, almost perfect instead.
We pulled over as we saw a little walk, the Lake Gunn Nature Walk, which started just along side the track. Perfect, great, let's go!
As you can see in the images it was lush. I mean, everything was green! It was all wet too, with little ponds and rivulets of water snaking here and there and dew on the plants. The deeper we went the quieter it got and it almost felt that we had entered another world, the lost world. I don't think I would have been surprised if a dinosaur popped its head out to say hello.
There were fallen trees everywhere, one of which you can see Faith standing on in that top image. They were soft, slowly decaying and being taken back into the earth to nourish the new growth; And there was plenty of that! Everywhere we looked something was growing, sprouting, creeping or hanging.
The trees were mostly Red Beech, a tree that can grow to forty metres and 2 metres in girth. Red Beech forests didn't provide as much food-gathering opportunities to the Maori as other treed forests although there's a little insect that sucks the sap from them, and produces honeydue; This attracts the tui, kaka and bellbird which the Maori would snare for food.
In later times the trees were sought after for railway sleepers, piles, mine timbers, wharves and and bridges.
We wandered through aimlessly breathing the fresh but earthy air until we popped out onto the shore of the lake itself.
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We had arrived quite early in the morning and the clouds hadn't burned off yet however it was still beautiful. You can see the low cloud in this image above. It would be spectacular on a blue-skied day.
As usual I can't come across water without testing it's temperature and taste, it's a survivalist thing...Cold and bloody tasty was the result of my extensive testing - It was almost sweet in taste. You can see Faith here posing at the edge of the lake...I think she didn't take that beanie off for days, but it was kind of cold! I called it the tea cosy, but don't tell her that.
The walk is only about 45 minutes although we took about 75 minutes as we stopped a lot to look at things, and to simply sit in silence, but before long we were back in the Rav4 hire car and on our way north towards Milford Sound and the cruise we were taking that day.
Little stop-offs like this broke that drive up, a fairly slow one, and gave us the chance to engage with what is a truly spectacular part of the world. We didn't hike as much as we would have liked on this New Zealand trip although we know we will be back again, and look forward to exploring some more.
Thanks for coming along today, and whilst you're here you may like to take a look at a another stop-off we made called The Chasm.
Looking for somewhere to travel? You need to put New Zealand on your list. You will not regret it...But you better like green.
Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default - Tomorrow isn't promised.
Be well
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