PART THREE (continued)

South and Southwest on the South Island

FIORDLAND
        Let’s create a rule of thumb for travel in New Zealand: when you tire of a location, drive two hours and expect to find something completely new. Nowhere is the change more dramatic than the change from Central Otago (Queenstown) to the region immediately to the south and west, Fiordland. If Central Otago has the arid, painted desert qualities of browns, golds, and umbers with starkly contrasting azures and turquoise from Lakes Wakatipu and Hayes, Fiordland is colored with the greens of life, the whites of cloud and snow, and the grays of mist and granite. Watch it happen two hours after turning south on Highway 6 from Queenstown to Lumsford, then west on Route 94 to Te Anau and north toward Milford.
photo © HOME AT FIRST

        Fiordland is a haven for anomalies. Fiordland is invaded by great, deep fingers of two oceans—the Tasman and the Southern Ocean—reaching far into the Southern Alps. The shoreline of these deep, clean, still fiords is temperate rain forest, thick with mossy trees and giant fern fronds—that very symbol of New Zealand. The great black forests climb the precipitous heights of the snowcapped Southern Alps, almost to the edges of the permanent snowline. The habitat of penguins overlaps that of mountain parrots in this part of paradise.  photo courtesy Julie Register

        Where the glaciers of antiquity retracted from lower levels, deep valleys, rills, and clefts remain now carpeted with jungle, convoluted as the folds of cauliflower. It is through this unique environment that the greatest names in New Zealand wilderness treks traverse, climb, and descend. Caples. Hollyford. Kepler. Greenstone. Routeburn. Milford. Thousands come to this far southwestern corner of New Zealand to walk the walk so they can talk the talk at home.

        Meanwhile, tens of thousands of the less well shod cruise or overfly the fiords, especially Milford Sound, still one of the great pilgrimage points of New Zealand tourism. Visitors expect encounters with seals, penguins, and other exotic fauna and flora in this special environment. These organized encounters in the pristine sounds of Fiordland were the first great successes of what has become that major growth genre "eco-tourism". And the Milford Sound eco-tourism experience, like Coca-Cola, has inspired many envious imitations, but none have quite the cachet of the original.

Fiordland’s unique ecology provides a special tonic for the hearts and spirits of visitors. Fortunately, its few towns—notably Te Anau and Manapouri—cheerfully dispense practical and efficient food and shelter to guests without feeling the need to add to the attractions of Fiordland with touristic kitch, glitz, and too many Maori-inspired greenstone jade craft shops. Bless them, they understand that more isn’t always better.

TRAVEL ADVISORY: LOOK FOR SPECIAL LOCAL EVENTS. At each of your Home at First New Zealand Lodgings ask your hosts if there are happenings of local interest ongoing during your visit. Look for "A & P Shows" — local New Zealand summer festivals that are combinations of country fairs, lumberjack meets and equestrian events. Look for plays, auctions, regattas, parades, and sporting events, events that will let you see the Kiwis at play. You may be the only strange faces in the crowd, and you will feel privileged to be there.

End of Part Three.
Exploration and discovery are what happens
during a visit to Home at First's New Zealand. Looking for new frontiers?
Lost worlds? New possibilities? Surprises? Geologic wonders?
Learn more about travel with Home at First to NEW ZEALAND.
Visit more Wild Frontiers at: PART 1    PART 2    PART 4