New Zealand – Manapouri, Te Anau, Milford & Doubtful Sounds

Days 5 through 8-Arrowtown to Manapouri- 150 kms. The temporary road sign read-“Please stop on request”. So polite these Kiwis! The sign informed us of a road bike race taking place on our scenic back road just outside of Queenstown. We pulled over to watch the “Tour of Southland” and admired the speed of the front group as they disappeared in our rearview mirror. [Bass: anyone riding in the, err, variable conditions we saw that day has some serious determination!]

Manapouri is a beautiful, tiny village on the shores of Lake Manapouri, the entrance to Fiordland National Park which was recognized by the United Nations as a World Heritage Area in 1986. Manapouri is also the home of Lisa Weber, a friend of ours from at least 15 years ago in Ketchum. Lawton is Lisa’s husband, a fly-fishing guide, who has been coming to these parts for ten years. Lisa and Lawton generously opened their home to us showing us the sites and acquainting us with their favorite local pub.

The first night in town we went to the pub, the Lakeview, for dinner. Following Lisa’s cue I had my first ever whitebait sandwich. Whitebait are small, clear fish about an inch long. When whitebait is in season and running you will see fishermen set out nets at river mouths. It is a delicacy we saw advertised mostly on the West coast. Locals eat it in patties made with scrambled egg. I liked the flavor especially with a local beer on tap.

I must mention here that the food and wine in New Zealand is outstanding. Animals are grass fed which makes for the most tender lamb and beef. And the cheeses, again due to the rich grass, are tastier than my favorites of Vermont. Lisa and Lawton agree and introduced us, with Cheshire cat grins on their faces, to “blue vein”. Blue vein is the most delicious cheese I have ever had. It is a blue cheese for which I will gladly endure another 12 hour flight just to taste again! I also discovered green-lipped mussels which the Kiwis gently steam and then package in a light brine. This was my favorite snack on the road….mussels and blue vein….another “died and gone to heaven” moment for me! And lucky for us Lisa also suggested we try Manuka honey. This yummy, creamy honey, said to have special anti-bacterial healing properties, is made from bees that pollinate the white flowers of Manuka bushes found only in the mountains on the South Island of New Zealand. This quickly became a favorite treat on a spoon out of the jar or in an evening cuppa. We tried many sauvignon blancs and they were all, for the most part, very good. Most nights we prepared dinner ourselves-a nice piece of fresh salmon or handmade lamb sausages and a bottle of sav blanc. Delightful! One of the rare nights we went out for dinner was with Lisa and Lawton who took us to their friend’s Redcliff Restaurant in Te Anau. This is great food in a cozy house decorated with old photographs of the area as well as the ubiquitous Peter Jackson’s Hobbit film memorabilia.

[One event not to miss in Te Anau is the short film Ata Whenua – Shadowland at the Fiordland Theater… it is ~30 minutes, no talking, just ridiculously beautiful shots of Fiordland.]

Now back to our Manapouri adventures! There are so many things to do in the Manapouri area. Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound topped our list. The next day Lisa and Lawton drove us into Milford Sound. This was a tough rally after a late night at the pub. But we managed to recover by stopping at the local pie shop in Te Anau for handmade breakfast pies. These pies will cure what ails you, no problem.

The twisty drive into Milford is one of the most scenic roads I’ve been on. The drive ends at the docks in a protected harbor filled with fishing boats. It was hard to imagine people working every day in this beauty. It must be hard to get any work done when you are constantly looking around at Fiordland. Fishermen catch cod as well as crayfish, which they call lobster, quite like the soft shell lobster on the island of Anegada in BVI.

On the way back from Milford Lawton stopped at a spring fed creek, Black Creek, which flows through a giant valley. The banks are soft, soggy mounds of long grass. It looks much like our Silver Creek but the surrounding snow capped mountains are larger. The whole landscape around us as we fished made me smile the entire time- I was giddy. This was for me, a serious “died and gone to heaven” moment. It was on the banks of this creek that I was going to make my guide proud and land a giant brown trout stuffed with still wiggling mice ………or as it later turned out ………scare the browns off.

I had done my homework on fly-fishing in New Zealand. What I read and saw was intimidating. In New Zealand one spot fishes by locating a specific trout and casting to it. The Kiwis call this sight fishing or hunting a fish. Lawton was very patient and asked me to follow his lead as we made our way carefully, quietly and in a crouching manner toward the bank. These fish are smart and search the banks for shapes and colors which are out of place. Immediately Lawton spotted a fish and pointed it out to me.. He was not actively feeding but rolling and making his big presence known. I will not make excuses for my poor casting technique….I knew I had only a few chances as an errant cast will spook the fish for good. So errant cast I made! DOH! Lawton demonstrated where my cast needed to be and I was unable to make the distance with the wind coming toward us. But it was sooooo cool! Of course I would have given my left arm to land a lunker …..but just being out there in that environment made me so damn happy!

Back in Manapouri we retreated to our houses for naps before walking to the pub for the third night of fun! Lisa and Lawton generously lent us their cozy guest cottage for our entire stay. This night Manapouri was celebrating Guy Fawkes Day with a big bon fire in the parking lot of the pub. There was music, fireworks and beer on tap. A couple of Fijians who now live in Manapouri were dancing in grass skirts twirling fire batons. Secretly I was relieved to know Bass was close by armed with his mad paramedic skills!

The following day we took a scenic boat tour across Lake Manapouri, and then boarded a bus for a 45 minute trip to Doubtful Sound. During the overland tour between Lake Manapouri and Doubtful Sound a bus took us underground to tour the hydroelectric power station which powers the aluminum processing industry. This is a must see! An engineering wonder. The energy generating capacity of this station is mind boggling. Engineers immediately thought it would make a good hydroelectricity source when they first saw it in the early 1900s. Lake Manapouri is deep and vast and the water from the lake flows naturally down to Doubtful Sound, which is at sea level.

As we boarded another boat in Doubtful Sound it began to rain. It was clear why the cliff sides are a lush, brilliant green. It is as if rain forests literally jut straight out of the water. Apparently it had been raining for days in Doubtful so we were treated to sights of waterfalls everywhere we looked. [So steep and protected are these fiords, and so great the rainfall in the area, that most of Deep Cove has approximately 10 feet of fresh water sitting in a layer on top of the salt water… true mixing doesn’t happen until you reach more active, open parts of the fiords as they drop into the Tasman Sea.] The boat captain had keen eyes and soon had us spotting a rare Fiordland Crested Penguin on one of the small protected islands technically in Doubtful Sound but open to the Tasman Sea on the windward side. The Fiordland Crested penguin is a threatened species due to non-endemic predators like rats and stoats. In Doubtful we also saw a small blue penguin, dolphins and many sea birds. It was incredible! I had come to New Zealand to see penguins and I was seeing them in the wild. Bass and I agree this was one of the best experiences, among many truly beautiful sights, of our entire trip to New Zealand. Bass shot many Nat Geo-quality pictures.

We loved meeting locals on the South Island. They are lovely people who work hard and have great, easy going attitudes. Lisa and Lawton introduced us to their many friends and we had the pleasure of meeting one of the first families in Manapouri. Pip and Rob Murrell run a guest lodge, Murrell’s Grand View House. The original house was built in 1889 by Rob’s great grandfather, Bob Murrell, to provide lodging for visitors to Fiordland. As we snugged up with drinks in Pip and Rob’s living room we could not take our eyes from the view of Lake Manapouri and Fiordland. Grand View Indeed! We also learned Rob, along with being a jet boat and fixed wing plane pilot, is also a vollie with the Manapouri fire brigade. Many people, Pip and Rob included, and Inga who owns the pub, were generally pleased that we were having such a good time in their country. Many told their stories of traveling in the States and shared with us their NZ must dos while on the South Island. Really fantastic people. Check out more about Murrell’s at: http://www.murrells.co.nz

We could have spent many weeks in Manapouri alone but it was time to hit the road. We knew we wanted to head south to the Catlins for penguin watching.

[And before you begin watching the two videos below, please remember, the 80’s music is a tribute only, it’s not our usual thing… and I’m somewhat proud to say we didn’t even own all of the soundtracks we used this time!]

Manapouri & Milford Sound

Doubtful Sound