![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
msconductIt's baaack! Since I'm currently sitting in lockdown, I thought I would finally finish this photo series and remind myself that New Zealand extends further than the end of my drive.
Where we left off, we'd been to Milford Sound. The next day, we visited the "other" sound, Doubtful Sound. (There are actually something like fifteen sounds, but these are the easiest to visit in Fiordland. Yes, although they're called sounds, they're actually fiords. Also, some of the fiords are called inlets or arms. We're weird like that.)
Milford Sound is by far the more popular sound to visit, and for the life of me I can't figure out why. Not only is Doubtful Sound even more beautiful than Milford Sound, to get there you have to get a boat across a lovely lake. Even better, you then take a bus over the spectacularly steep and twisty Wilmot Pass on New Zealand's most expensive road, which isn't connected to any other road. What's not to like?
Like most destinations in Fiordland, you have a fifty-fifty chance of seeing Doubtful Sound in fine weather. As with Milford Sound, I'd been lucky on a previous visit, but not so much this time. This is what it looks like on a fine day:
Although on the other hand, the view on a cloudy day's pretty dramatic too.
Wait a minute. What's in that tree?
Could it be....one of these?
The kea is the world's only alpine parrot and in my opinion the goddamn coolest bird in the world. They're extremely smart. They're also extremely destructive. If you park at a skifield, it's by no means uncommon to return to your car to find the window glass is on the ground because keas have pulled out all the rubber. Just for fun. They are hilarious. I was thrilled to see one here.
Doubtful Sound is enormous and as a result difficult to photograph. The closest I can get to a description is "spectacularly bumpy".
At some point during your Doubtful Sound trip, the boat's engines will be turned off and you will get to listen to the beautiful sound of human-free silence. It's stunning. If you're ever in this part of the world, please don't overlook Doubtful. It's an experience like no other.
After Doubtful, we drove a bit north to Queenstown. Queenstown is probably New Zealand's most famous tourist destination, and for good reason. I've visited seven continents, and I've never seen a more beautiful town. It's situated on the gorgeous Lake Wakatipu, and like many of the places I'm talking about it's impossible to capture the full beauty in a photo, so mentally times it by ten and you'll be in the ballpark. Because I've been there before, I didn't take many photos, but here's someone else's:
The mountain range is called the Remarkables. I was travelling with a friend who had immigrated to New Zealand and hadn't yet been to Queenstown. As we rounded the curve of the road for our first glimpse, she said "Why are they called the Remarkables?....Oh." Quite.
It was at this point that I exercised one of my most powerful talents: falling ill on holiday. Yes, with the borders closed and a resulting 99.8% reduction in flu cases, I still managed to catch a nasty cold. Well done me! Fortunately, we'd snagged an Airbnb right on the lake, so I got to sit around blowing my nose and gazing out the window at this:
You know what, cold notwithstanding it was pretty great.
And we're nearly there! Just one more post, and I will stop torturing you with my holiday photos. Promise.
Where we left off, we'd been to Milford Sound. The next day, we visited the "other" sound, Doubtful Sound. (There are actually something like fifteen sounds, but these are the easiest to visit in Fiordland. Yes, although they're called sounds, they're actually fiords. Also, some of the fiords are called inlets or arms. We're weird like that.)
Milford Sound is by far the more popular sound to visit, and for the life of me I can't figure out why. Not only is Doubtful Sound even more beautiful than Milford Sound, to get there you have to get a boat across a lovely lake. Even better, you then take a bus over the spectacularly steep and twisty Wilmot Pass on New Zealand's most expensive road, which isn't connected to any other road. What's not to like?
Like most destinations in Fiordland, you have a fifty-fifty chance of seeing Doubtful Sound in fine weather. As with Milford Sound, I'd been lucky on a previous visit, but not so much this time. This is what it looks like on a fine day:
Although on the other hand, the view on a cloudy day's pretty dramatic too.
Wait a minute. What's in that tree?
Could it be....one of these?
The kea is the world's only alpine parrot and in my opinion the goddamn coolest bird in the world. They're extremely smart. They're also extremely destructive. If you park at a skifield, it's by no means uncommon to return to your car to find the window glass is on the ground because keas have pulled out all the rubber. Just for fun. They are hilarious. I was thrilled to see one here.
Doubtful Sound is enormous and as a result difficult to photograph. The closest I can get to a description is "spectacularly bumpy".
At some point during your Doubtful Sound trip, the boat's engines will be turned off and you will get to listen to the beautiful sound of human-free silence. It's stunning. If you're ever in this part of the world, please don't overlook Doubtful. It's an experience like no other.
After Doubtful, we drove a bit north to Queenstown. Queenstown is probably New Zealand's most famous tourist destination, and for good reason. I've visited seven continents, and I've never seen a more beautiful town. It's situated on the gorgeous Lake Wakatipu, and like many of the places I'm talking about it's impossible to capture the full beauty in a photo, so mentally times it by ten and you'll be in the ballpark. Because I've been there before, I didn't take many photos, but here's someone else's:
The mountain range is called the Remarkables. I was travelling with a friend who had immigrated to New Zealand and hadn't yet been to Queenstown. As we rounded the curve of the road for our first glimpse, she said "Why are they called the Remarkables?....Oh." Quite.
It was at this point that I exercised one of my most powerful talents: falling ill on holiday. Yes, with the borders closed and a resulting 99.8% reduction in flu cases, I still managed to catch a nasty cold. Well done me! Fortunately, we'd snagged an Airbnb right on the lake, so I got to sit around blowing my nose and gazing out the window at this:
You know what, cold notwithstanding it was pretty great.
And we're nearly there! Just one more post, and I will stop torturing you with my holiday photos. Promise.
