Getting to Doubtful sound is significantly harder than one might imagine. First, you must drive to the far edge of the NZ road system, board a boat to take you across a river, then take a bus which can never connect to the rest of NZ, finally boarding the vessel which will be your home away from home for the duration of the cruise.
Leaving Lucy, our campervan, by the side of the road yet again, we boarded a small boat which would take us to the beginning of our trip. Something wasn't quite right though. Both Alex and I looked in dismay at the fellow travellers. Expecting the usual mix of back-packers, perhaps with some locals thrown in for good measure, we were rather shocked to find that almost all of the people on the trip were over the age of 50. Welcome to SAGA holidays!
Arriving on our vessel for which we would spend the next few two days, we swiftly realised that the tour was all about enforced enjoyment. At every opportunity we were told what the most fun thing we could possibly do would be and were expected to partake. For example, it may be freezing cold outside, but “Right now the best place on the boat is on the bow enjoying the scenery...” Apparently, when you hit the age of fifty, you loose the ability to make decisions for yourself. You also forget things alot, which accounts for why we were told no less than thirty times how the banks of the shore contained no soil, but instead were built on "lichens, mosses and other dead matter".
What made this even more amusing was the way in which it was said – by an over-tired crew-member, who had long since had all forms of personal enjoyment removed from their lifeless cask of a body.
What was more amazing though, is that despite the lack-luster crew the voyage was thoroughly enjoyable! The scenery was fantastic. The nature was even better.
Following a few hours of motoring, we were to come across our first pod of dolphins. Never getting that close to these creatures before has meant that I have been deprived of their company for many years. Sitting on the front of the boat however, it was a truly amazing sight as the pod slowly came closer to the boat, playing on the bow wave as dusk began to fall.
[Dolphin Video to replace this picture if I get a fast connection!!]
Over the three days we saw fur seals, dolphins and also penguins, not to mention a large number of birds and a few million sandflies!
Over the next twenty four hours, we would encounter fur seals and also some very rare penguins – all of this in almost “perfect” conditions; for Doubtful Sound. Unfortunately, with the great nature and green hills comes a harsh price – over 300 days of rain per year. Luckily for us, we were there on one of the few days that it was not raining!!
Leaving the serenity of Doubtful Sounds behind us, we took Lucy off towards another first for myself – a glacier. On the way stopping by a rather old-fashioned, but very good fun museum which involved different types of optical illusions and puzzles. I'm sure it was the first time my brain had been worked out since trying to learn Mandarin in China!!
One of the best parts was a two story maze, which was made to infuriate! After about 45 minutes, both Alex and I had found three of the four towers, but despite running to find the fourth, Alex managed to get there first - well, almost, as I slid under one of the gates in a desperate (and rather blatent) attempt to cheat! I conceded victory - anything else would be rather "un-British".
Arriving on the Franz-Joseph glacier, I had managed to coerce Alex to do a day's ice climbing. My thought was that if we were going to do a trek on a glacier, why not make it a little more hard-core and actually have some serious fun as well!?
After sleeping on the side of the road, we arose at silly-o-clock in the morning to be given our equipment. Tooling up with crampons, ice-axes and harnesses, it was time to be off into the driving rain. At this point, about five of our group, myself included, noted that our boots were a really bad fit, but that it would be okay “as long as we didn't go walking for the next two hours”.
Two and a half hours of walking through jungle, scree and finally the glacier later, we arrived at the edge of our first wall, and were shown how best to ice-climb.
Crampons – they are amazing things really, the guide demonstrated how one could quite literally walk up a wall, as long as the technique was right and the ice firm enough. The axes just made it look more hard-core. As we climbed up the first slope, we soon realised why the axes were there, as often the footing may give way, or just due to human nature, one would require something to hold on to in order to provide balance.
Three attempts at the same 20m cliff, and we were all ready to go home. It was tiring stuff, and strangely more exhausting than normal climbing. When in normal climbing do you have to smack a hammer into a sheet of ice multiple times until you can get a good purchase??
A further hour's walk and the rain began to subside. As the clouds cleared from the glacier, the views were very impressive. From my perspective, I had never been on a glacier before, and had certainly never used crampons. I was loving it!
Arriving at a second sheet of sheer ice, this time with an overhang, we began to make the ascents. Each time or technique improved, and we could see that our skills were getting better. However, at the same time our physical stamina was waning. Making a crazy dash for the top on the first run proved very good, not only getting myself up there far faster than usual, but also preserving energy. However, when it came to the third attempt I was done for.
Dashing up the first 10m, I came to an overhang and just could not manage to bury the ice axe into the ice deep enough. Feeling like some feeble gerbil had swapped his muscles for mine, I tried to fling the ice axe at the edge, with no luck. Each time I tried, the axe would simply bounce off, or worse than that, not even make it to the ice surface. It was hilarious to watch, even from my perspective, as I had rarely encountered fatigue quite to this level!
Admitting defeat and descending back to the crowd, I was glad to see that almost everyone was having exactly the same issue. Often ascents were being called short, or axes or crampons would simply fall out of the ice just at the time of need. To all those ice-climbers out there – I'm impressed, you must have some serious upper body stamina to keep you going up any serious length edges!
Wrapping up the ice-climbing for the day with a three hour hike back, we released our feet from the confines of plastic hell which were our boots and wearily dragged ourselves back to the campervan. Forcing a late evening drive to push on to the north of the South Island, we arrived at a deserted lay-by next to a very under-used road just in time to see the sunset.
As the evening drew in, we both relaxed with a sense of accomplishment reinforced by the satisfying ache all over our bodies!
The next day it was time to explore Abel Tasman National Park.
With only a few hours to see the best of what it offered, we headed off for a three hour hike across the hills and to a secluded beach. After about one hour 45 minutes, we seemed to arrive and were constantly vexed by the signs which within a few hundred metres of each-other would vary the estimations of distance (measured by time!?) by half an hour or so!?
The beach was wonderful, although in a very depressing moment, Alex found out that not all beaches which look this good are actually hot. In fact, this beach was really, really cold. So much so that our legs were nub before we even had the opportunity to get deeper than knee depth. No wonder there were no swimmers!!
Taking a sea-taxi back, we left the secluded nature of South Island for the early morning ferry to North Island. With now three days of sleeping by the roadside, we were looking for a bit of civilisation. North Island was about to deliver!
1 comment:
Just wait till you hit 50! Still at least I doubt you would have encountered any SAGAites on the glacier! It certainly looks spectacular and I'm green with envy at everything you have seen and done. All the best :-)
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