Deer Park Heights

Chris picked us up early in Dunedin, and we set out for Queenstown. He gave us a quick look at the town and our hotel to get us oriented, and then drove us up to Deer Park Heights. He was going to take us through the attraction, then drop us back in downtown to do some exploring on our own.

This was his first time at the Deer Park, but after we had worked out the things that we definitely wanted to do, he told us he would fill in some other activities to suit us as he got to know us. He had learned that we were complete suckers for animals, and somewhat interested in seeing places from The Lord of the Rings, so this place turned out to be perfect.

I have the web site at the end of the post, so you can check it out, but the page advertises safaris, where they will pick you up, and you can combine it with a jet boat or helicopter ride. This was not our experience at all. We drove up to the gate, inserted $20 NZD into the slot, and the gate opended automatically. Since we had four people in the car, this was a pretty good deal.

There were maps that you could take you give you an idea of the layout, and various feed stations with empty coffee cans, where you could put in $2 NZD and get the can full of food, thereby being able to feed the animals. Truly, it is a bargain.

The place does have its flaws. Some of the animals are penned, and some are not, but the areas are large enough that if they want to avoid you, they easily can. Therefore, we never saw any bison, though I believe we saw all of the other species. There are no attendants, so I suppose there can be a certain danger to that, though there are no carnivores. (Well, there were these very hairy pigs, but they were penned, and they did not seem particularly fierce. Some day they may find that they have to protect the animals from the people, but I hope not.) Regardless, we had a good time with what we did.

At the first area we had the pigs, chickens, ducks, and donkeys. I guess this was the farm area. Chris got some food (they called it "nuts", but it was more like kibble), and we started feeding the animals. He made a game where we tried to throw directly to specific animals, and scored points for each direct pass. Julie got all three, thus becoming the clear winner.

The donkeys were fascinating in that, rather than grazing at the food from your hands, they shaped their mouths into cups, expecting you to drop the food in. Well, if that's the way they want it.

We got back into the car and drove to the llama area. There was one baby (a cria) with its mother, and she was pretty protective. I was able to pet it, and then she herded it to the side so no one else could. This was a shame because the baby was so soft.

Really, all of the llama petting was made a little more complicated because of the other one pictured. If he looks kind of "in your face", well, that's because he was. He kept trying to get into the food can. We didn't have any objection to feeding him, but we wanted the others to get some too. What we ended up doing was taking a little to give to him and then passing the can to the next person. He kept catching on and going after the next can holder, but in between that we could feed and pet the others.

We drove on and saw more animals. I had never heard of a thar before, but they had them. They're a lot like goats.

Back to the information sheet, one side was a map that showed the roads and the general areas where the different animals could be found. The other side had the list of species and information about them.

The map side also had numbers for different filming locations. Most of the footage shot here was for scenes set around Rohan, so it was primarily for The Two Towers, and then the scene in The Return of the King where Gandalf is riding away with Pippin. That picture of Maria was taken where Aragorn fell over the cliff after the wargs attacked.

One thing that we thought was odd was that there was an area on the map designated "Movie Set". I mean, wasn't the whole thing? We understood better when we turned and came across a Korean prison. Lo and behold, there was an actual set left standing from the movie, The Rescue. I vaguely remembered seeing ads for a film where a bunch of navy brats go in to rescue their parents when the government won't, because, you know, that's likely. I also thought I remembered Sean Astin being in it, but it was actually Kevin Dillon and the kid who played Skippy on Family Ties. I guess for Sean I was thinking of B.R.A.T. Patrol, but that's okay, he was in a different movie that filmed here, even if he wasn't in those scenes.

What was funny was that Chris had just been saying that they ought to have some sort of coffee stand or something in the park, so once we saw that, the obvious thing was to put in a bento stand. In reality though, the set is falling apart, and is fenced off because of how dangerous it would be. Maybe it's just as well that the Rohan set was taken down.

We did have one more animal encounter that I want to share. The last animals we fed were the feral goats. "Feral" makes them sound more ferocious than they are. All it means is that domestic goats went into the wild, and kept breeding, and it does not make them particularly dangerous, but they can be food aggressive, just like tame goats are.

Anyway, we went in, and started feeding the goats. Maria had the coffee can, and this one goat was following her around, and stuck his face right into the can, and she got scared and dropped it. Now all of the goats went for it.

That could have been funny on its own, but then Chris said "Now that's two dollars wasted." There could not have been more than an inch of food left in the can, because we had been using it at many stops. But the Scots are cheap, and it's funny.

We had a good time.

http://www.thedeerpark.co.nz/

Sunday in Dunedin

Although we were discouraged by our failed attempt to go to church, the fact that we had managed to find our way back to the motel may have given us a false sense of security in our ability to navigate. We changed clothes, and started walking in what we believed was the general direction of downtown. It wasn't.

After wandering around in residential tracts, we wandered into a little convenience store, talked to the clerk there, and decided to call a cab. This part actually went quite well. Our cabbie was prompt, got us right into town at a reasonable price, and gave us helpful advice about getting back when the time came. Every now and then, something has to go right.

Dunedin was founded in 1841 by the Lay Association of the Free Church of Scotland. Their spiritual guide was the Reverend Thomas Burns, a nephew of the poet Robert Burns. That statue in the town center is of Robert Burns.

The Scottish influence is felt in other ways. Dùn Èideann is the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the Scottish capital. Chris told us that Dunedin was planned following the basic design of Edinburgh, including using the same street names. However, the street names were not used in the same order, so maps are not interchangeable.

We had the cab take us to the Octagon, because it is the center of town, and so an easy starting point for getting around. It worked out even better than we thought. You have the statue here, and a small park area, but many attractions are just a stone's throw away, so we were able to see a lot in a short amount of time.

We started out at the Art Gallery. In addition to the art exhibits, they have a video library where you can see historic footage, documentaries about the area, and even works by local filmmakers (they had a large Peter Jackson section).

Next, we started off towards the First Church Otago. Under the architect's original design, it was going to be a beacon on the hill. While he was away, they moved it, considerably lower down. This was quite disappointing for him, but it is still a very pretty church, and probably easier to get to this way.

Going down one more block we arrived at the Settlers Museum, and took in the exhibits. I think we ended up being most intrigued by the transport gallery. In addition to vehicles from several eras, you could see early drivers training videos. It was just kind of a fun departure from the typical museum exhibit.

Exiting the museum, we had a choice to turn left or right. We sort of intended to go to the classical Chinese garden, and we thought right looked more promising for that, because all we saw to the left was a shopping center. Well, it turns out the garden was left, just set back from the road. We had heard mixed reviews on it anyway, but I think the real issue is that some people like classical Chinese gardens and some don't. If you like the Portland one, you would probably like this one and the one in Sydney. It's just a guess.

Now, I can't say that going right was a mistake, because suddenly everything else is right there. We had explored this area a bit with Chris the previous day, but we were able to go over it again at our leisure. Here you have the historic courthouse and jail, the Cadbury factory, and the Dunedin Railway Station.

The station is quite famous, and commonly referred to as either the most photographed building in New Zealand, or the second-most photographed building in the Southern Hemisphere (following the Sydney Opera House). In addition to the elaborate gingerbread architecture on the outside, there are all sorts of flourishes on the inside, from mosaics and stained glass to wrought iron work and statuary. Tour trains still depart from it, but is has very much become a tourist attraction more than a working train station. There is even a sports hall of fame on the second floor. I would have liked to have taken more pictures of it, but my batteries were running low, again.

That was pretty much our last stop of the day. We casually worked our way back up to the Octagon, caught a cab back to the motel, did laundry, ordered pizza, and watched the Simpsons movie on TV. Monday would be Queenstown, and Tuesday we would head back to the States. Our trip was quickly coming to a close.

I have to say, Dunedin is a lovely spot, with a lot to do, and on those grounds I recommend it. Still, and this may be heresy, I think the Octagon looked more like a hexagon. Maybe I just needed to stop and count.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunedin
http://dunedin.art.museum/
http://www.firstchurchotago.org.nz/
http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/facilities/otago-settlers-museum
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunedin_Railway_Station

Why we never went to church on vacation

To be fair, growing up we never went to church on vacation. In fact, stake and general conferences were treated as vacation days. I didn't even know there were Saturday night sessions of stake conference until I was on my mission.

So the habits were not really there, but it was also rarely an issue. The most common vacations my sisters and I take are ones where we leave on Monday and get back on Friday night. I did look up meeting information for when we were in Hawaii, but it didn't work out.

In this case, we were going to be gone on five Sundays, and that was a lot of Sunday to miss. Not only would missing that much church not feel right, but I thought it would be really cool to meet members in other places. Maybe they would suggest places we had not thought of going, or take us home to use their internet, or become pen pals. It was worth trying.

I had to eliminate two of the Sundays right off of the bat. On our third Sunday we would be with the tour group on Kangaroo Island, traveling with them. One the first Sunday we could have had some free time, but there was no branch in Port Douglas. The closest unit was in Cairns, over an hour away by car, which we did not have. (We had already booked all of our air and ground transportation while I was looking.) Still, that left us with three Sundays, and I had the addresses of the meeting houses and the meeting times.

Our first chance was in Sydney, on the second Sunday of our trip. I had printed directions, and it was supposed to only be a few blocks away. We got up, got dressed, and started off. We had an address, and a building name. It looks like the local branch did not have their own building, so they used a room in a public building. No problem, except that the building did not seem to be at the spot we expected.

What was there appeared to be a police station, but hey, at least there were lots of officers we could ask. We did, and he was not positive, but he thought it would be two blocks in the direction he pointed out. Now, it was a very warm day, and the part of Sydney we were in was quite hilly, but okay, we at least had to try. We trudged on in our uncomfortable Sunday shoes, and found the street, and there was nothing there either. There was a race of some kind, though, so there were lots of runners, and officers controlling the crowds, and we asked again.

Oddly, these directions did not work either, and we had kind of circled back to where we started from. Maybe that means that we had been close the entire time, and all we needed was to have gone at a slightly different angle, or one street over, but we were thoroughly stumped, and now hot, sweaty, and tired, so we gave up. After all, our other two times would be in New Zealand, where there are a lot more members, and people would be more familiar with the church, so this was a fluke, and regrettable, but the other Sundays would be different. Well, they were different anyway.

The fourth Sunday was in Auckland, and it was just stupidity that we missed it, which was a shame because we had already had one stroke of luck. You see, this was the first Sunday in October, so it was General Conference. I was worried that would throw things off, because maybe they would not be on their regular schedule, watching the broadcasts. Still, with the time difference, maybe they would tape the broadcasts to play the following week. However, we were lucky because their normal meeting time was 9 am, and that would coincide with the Saturday morning session of conference, so we could not lose either way.

Ha! Well, this one was entirely our own fault. Again, with the time change, and also with being out of our normal routine, sleeping in strange places, we had automatically been waking up at 4 or 5 every morning. Since we would not have to be up until 7, we did not bother setting the alarm, which felt like kind of a luxury. Well, maybe it was that we had been traveling enough to adjust, or the beating that we took in the boat at the Bay of Islands, or just the switch from Australian time to New Zealand time. Somehow, we slept until 8:30.

Okay, we felt bad, but on the next Sunday we actually had a ride to church, because our tour guide had arranged it, so this time we were going to make it for sure. There were just two problems. One was that if we had gone in Auckland, we would have seen that they were on the normal schedule that week, and maybe we could have asked how conference generally worked so we would have an idea of what was different. Having missed that, we were uninformed, and since the people who were helping us get to church were not members (it was actually the motel owner who drove us), they could not advise.

The Dunedin Mornington branch meets at 9. We got up, got dressed, and somehow I knew that I must not wear my church shoes. The Sunday hike in Sydney had shown me that. My sisters disagreed with my decision to wear sneakers with my skirt, but I stood firm. This turned out to be handy.

Our landlady drove us up, and since it was basically a straight shot to the motel, we assured her we could walk back. The parking lot was empty, but it was not quite 9 yet. We should have worried more, but she let us out and drove off. We went to the door and noticed a paper with the conference rebroadcast schedule.

I really do not understand why, when one branch meets at 9 and the other meets at 12:30, the first conference session would be aired at 2. Tell me the sense in that. But that's what it said.

Well, there was no way we were going to stand in a parking lot for five hours, so we started down the hill, making the long march back and feeling pretty stupid. I was glad to be wearing sneakers though, I'll tell you that.

As we started our walk, Maria said, "That's it. We are never going to church on vacation again!" I told her that wasn't the answer. I think the real solution is that you always need to call first. Find a number for the branch president and confirm the meeting times. Ask him for directions. Maybe even see if someone can give you a ride. I can assure you that have the building address and meeting time only seems like enough.

Penguin Place

I have a soft spot for penguins, and we got to see many different types on this trip. Well, okay, it was mainly four types. Regardless, this was definitely the best setup. Sometimes I have mixed feelings about animals in captivity, but these were free. In the wild, you often can't see them very well. We had excellent views. Getting too close to wildlife can be bad for the animals and the humans, but this was really low impact.

It is all possible due to an elaborate network of bunkers. Actually, I asked one of the guides if the owner was former military, and he wasn't, but the blinds do have military origins. I think they were bought as surplus. Anyway, the blinds are linked by covered trenches, so you are always underground. I don't think the penguins are necessarily unaware that they are being watched, but they are never touched or approached, and they seem to feel pretty comfortable.

The land was a sheep farm, of course, much like Hobbiton. However, it is also coastal, and Yellow-eyed Penguins would come ashore and breed. If I understood correctly, the sheep are still there, but routed away from that part of the property, and the shelters and tunnels went up. The breeding population has more than doubled since they started.

That is not a huge increase, but considering all of the issues that native birds have had in New Zealand, it is not bad. They are solitary breeders, so each pair wants a certain amount of space. Also, as the newly hatched birds mature, they may not all choose to come back to the same area to breed. Once they pick a breeding spot they will be very consistent, but I think they said that does not happen until the birds are three years old, and they can end up somewhere else. However, if one bird has been coming back regularly, and then stops, that probably means it is dead. The crew there keeps track of the breeding pairs, and hatchlings. (We also learned that the same pairs come together season after season, but "divorces" do happen.)

This is a great place to support. Not only do you see penguins, but they can use the money. Even though they are very much helping with conservation, it is a private endeavor, and so there is no government funding. They just love the penguins, and have a chance to do something about it. They will sometimes get an injured bird shipped to them for rehabilitation, and the government may do some compensation for that, but really, no one is turning a large profit here.

That is one thing, in that although generally it is hands off, if there is a sick or injured bird they will try to help, which is how they have some ability to treat penguins from other areas. It is very much wildlife rehabilitation though, with the goal of re-release. There are no zoo connections because there are none in captivity. Usually the penguins you see in zoos are more social varieties.

Even if they don't wind up in huge mob scenes like the Emperor Penguins, they can co-exist with another species. You may notice that one of the pictures is of a mother duck and duckling. The father and other ducklings were around too, getting some swimming in. One penguin approached the pond, and you could see he wanted to go in, but the father was eyeing him suspiciously, and he hesitated. Eventually he did go in, but not too close, and there were no confrontations. And, what surprised me greatly was that in this situation, the penguin swam like a duck. Usually I see them launching like mini-torpedoes, so it was interesting to see a different mode.

There is also a picture of how the landscape plays out, so you kind of get an idea of what you were walking through, and how far it extends, and yet it still doesn't stick out that much.

The other manmade intervention you will notice is that the birds are in nesting boxes. Some did just set up under bushes, but in general they seemed to be very comfortable using these wooden a-frames for shelter. Anything to make it easier, I guess. They are considered threatened.

http://www.penguinplace.co.nz/
http://www.penguin.net.nz/species/yep/index.html

Larnach Castle

Remember, this was still our first Saturday in Dunedin, and it was a day just jam-packed with activity. I took many pictures at the castle, and being limited to posting five per blog, wanted to give Larnach a fair shake. It still may be worth checking out the main photo site.

If you do, the extras will primarily be pictures of the different plants. The gardens have a large assortment of native plants, and then there is a section of more tropical/desert plants, like aloe vera, and other sorts of plants in between.

There is also a bit of an Alice in Wonderland theme. It is not overpowering, but in addition to the statue of Alice playing croquet, shown above, there is a Cheshire cat, the King of Hearts, and the Duchess, and there is a throne for the Queen of Hearts, which I photographed by itself and with Julie in it. (There are also two photos of Maria in a seat built from a stump, but I could not get her to stop laughing. Maybe I should have quit saying funny things.)

We just kept finding different things. There was a row of arches leading to the castle, but they were not in line with the parking area. Checking the other end, there is a duck pond, and a white statue that you would think is a sleeping duck or swan, but then you read the plaque and it was actually representative of the boat of the soul after death, or some such nonsense. It made so much more sense for it to be a duck. Incidentally, the ducks were busy grazing, and had clipped a narrow border around the pond. Well, why should they get out to eat if they didn't have to?

We wandered around a bit more, and found this small tent-like structure. We thought maybe it was for the ducks, and peeking inside we saw little white feathers, which seemed to back that up. However, turning another corner we found these fluffy white hens, and the tent was their home.

Our admission to the grounds was included with the tour. We could have paid extra to go inside the castle, but ended up not doing so. I did snap a picture of the inside though, and that is up above. I'm sure it would have been fine, but we had places to go and things to do, and I've seen old furniture before.

http://www.larnachcastle.co.nz/index.pasp
http://harristravel.shutterfly.com/788

The Otago Peninsula

We really found that people in the hospitality industry will go out of their way for you. They kind of have to, but it can still be handy. So, when I wrote to Back to Nature tours asking about one specific day trip, Chris wrote back asking if there was anything else he could do for us at all. I had concerns about hitting all the different points on the south island, so I asked for some advice there, and he offered to book all transportation, accommodation, and tours. That is how we ended up with a personal guide.

The tour I was initially asking about was pretty much the Discover the Peninsula tour. It looks like they have made a few changes to the package, but the main points are the same, and that basically ended up being one day for us, our first in Dunedin. I'm going to write separate posts for Larnach Castle and Penguin Place, but this is everything else that happened that day.

We has spent the night in Te Anau, so we started the day with a three hour road trip. We needed to get it out of the way some time. We arrived in Dunedin right about lunch time. Chris dropped us off at a Chinese restaurant while he went to go make some arrangements for us. I wish I could tell you the name of the place, but seriously, the only English word I saw anywhere was "restaurant". It was an orange building, and reasonably priced, and might have been on the west side of town.

I almost forgot, our Dunedin Cadbury tour happened on this day also. Well, I already wrote about that, and suffice it to say that while New Zealand is wonderful and magical, Cadbury is much better in Tasmania.

Now, Chris was customizing things for us, so I may mention things that we did that are not normally done. A lot of their business is picking up cruise ship customers, where they have fairly strict time lines. Still, Back to Nature Tours is very accommodating, so it might be worth asking.

Right across from the Cadbury factory is the train station and other historic buildings, as well as a museum and Chinese garden. I will write about these more later, because we did some exploring on our own the next day. Chris also took us to the university campus to look around, and to see Baldwin Street, which he told us is the steepest street in the world. Wikipedia says there is some dispute about that, but as you can see, it is quite steep.

We started off for the peninsula proper, with Chris telling us about the local history and ecology. After Larnach Castle, we headed over to Sandfly Bay. This sounds like an unpromising name, especially as our bug bites from Kangaroo Island had barely stopped itching, but the issue is not sand flies. Instead it is that there are frequent high winds, and so the sand flies. This was definitely true.

In two of the photos you can see Lion's Head Rock, which is a local landmark. Some people also think it looks like a baboon's head, but the locals see a lion, and I can see it too, so that's what I'm sticking with.

As we approached the bay, we passed two men and a dog on a tractor. They were sheep farmers. When we came back, they were gone, but there was a sheep outside the gate, and it seemed disturbed to be separated from the rest of the flock. We are helpful people, and have a lot of compassion for animals, so we felt bad for the sheep and wanted to help. We asked Chris if he could open the gate for the sheep.

There was a look on his face which I did not understand. I thought perhaps it meant that we were overreacting, and the sheep would be fine without our help, and maybe he thought we were a little crazy. It was not that.

Chris tried to prepare us, that if we wanted to muster the sheep, we would all need to get out of the car, and close off different angles. It all seemed rather complicated, when I thought that all he had to do was go and open the gate. Still, this is what he said needed to be done, so we got out, and he moved a little forward, and the sheep bolted and completely escaped our perimeter.

I know sheep have a reputation for being stupid, and maybe that is true, as this one could not see that we were trying to help. What I will say is that they are skittish and fast, and that is why you need dogs. Three confused Americans? Not so helpful.

(Incidentally, we were told earlier that if you find a stray sheep, you can take it. You need to allow some time for the owner to claim it, but you can eat that sheep. Well, this law is less useful knowing how hard they are to catch.)

As stated, Penguin Place will be its own post, but there were a few other stops. One was the Royal Albatross Colony. This is another case where going a bit later could have been helpful. We were right at the start of the breeding season, so there were only two albatross there. That number would be increasing over the next few weeks. Still, we did see those two. (And sea gulls. Lots and lots of sea gulls.)

We also made a few stops for other bird watching at random places. We were on a peninsula, but rather than jutting out into the open sea, it goes out a little and follows the shoreline, so you have this rather large inlet with some good shelter, and you get all kinds of sea birds and shore birds. I can't even remember all the types we saw.

There was one bit of wildlife I will remember for sure though. At one point Chris got out of the car and found four little crabs so we could have a race. He drew a circle in the sand, divided it into quadrants, and set each crab in the middle. Mine was the first one to make it out.

All in all, it was a very good day. We did a lot of different things and had a great time--so much so that it will require three posts total to do it justice (four if you count the Cadbury one).


http://www.backtonaturetours.co.nz/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldwin_Street,_Dunedin

Milford Sound

At some point I will sum up the trip, and give general tips, and I may make the point that combining New Zealand and Australia may not be the wisest idea. Sure, they are in the same general area, but they are different enough to have quite different weather patterns. If we had gone later, Australia would have been too hot, at least in parts. However, waiting another month or so might have been good for the New Zealand side of things.

Milford Sound is so beautiful that Rudyard Kipling called it the eighth wonder of the world. Mitre Peak is considered to be exquisitely shaped. The Maori say that the creators of the area had been practicing making all the other mountains and lakes, but this area was the last they created and was perfect.

We never saw Mitre Peak. The clouds never lifted enough for it to become visible. As you can see from these pictures, it was quite cloudy and foggy, and there was intermittent rain. Many things were hidden from view. As it was, we were lucky. Our initial plan was to kayak on the sound, but we started to have doubts about this being the right place to learn how to kayak, so we changed to a boat tour. If we had kayaked, we would have been nearly drowned by the rain, plus having a good chance of drowning ourselves anyway, so that worked out.

The reason we wanted to kayak is because tourism sites will frequently show pictures of dolphins swimming among kayakers (actually, there may only be one picture that gets shared), and you think, oh my gosh, what an amazing experience. It would be, but it also has kind of caused this myth to develop that the Sound is full of dolphins and you will definitely see them if you go. That is not true. Chris (who has kayaked with dolphins), says he sees them about every fourth trip. That is not bad odds at all, but you need to have expectations set appropriately. The only wildlife we saw on the cruise itself was a single seal.

That should in no way be seen as a criticism of the trip. It was not what we expected, but it was still beautiful. Often the fog made it eerily beautiful.

We got on the bus in Te Anau, but there were only five of us there (us three and a couple on their honeymoon). Everyone else had started in Queensland, and then returned there, which must have added four hours to their trip. I'm glad we did it that way. The downside is there was not much choice of seats left. I did not end up near my sisters, though we saw each other on stops.

There are several points of interest along the way. I think there normal plan is to do all the stops on the way when everyone is fresh, and then go straight back on the return trip. Some of the scenic viewpoints were so fogged in on the way, that we made a few extra stops on the way back. Again, I kind of liked it. That picture of the kea on the branch up above is one of my favorites. It's like something out of another world.

We saw many kea. We learned a bit more about the birds. One thing to know is that they are inveterate thieves. They will steal food of course (which is not healthy for them, but they'll still do it), but they will also go for shiny objects. So, you can shake your keys to attract them, but do not let them grab your keys, or you have just stranded yourself.

Some of the stops include Knob Flats, where you have glacier deposits, and the cataract, where the running water has carved twisted, fantastic patterns.

There are mountains between Te Anau and Milford Sound. There is dense vegetation below, but the timberline is fairly low, so you have trees, and then an abrupt stop to where it is almost all bare rock. I am probably not describing this well, but there are two related things that I want to describe. One is that at the upper levels there is nothing to absorb rain, so during rain waterfalls show up everywhere. That is unless it is windy, in which case the wind blows the water streams into the air, so you just have a valley full of misty bridal veils.

The other point of this is that apparently even the lower vegetation is not rooted very deep, so when a slide is triggered, it really clears everything away. We passed a recent slide, and one that had been there for a while, and I took pictures, but they just did not do it justice. There's a link to the main photo site if you want to take a look, but it just does not capture the scope.

You don't go completely over the mountains, as you pass through the Homer tunnel. This was another case of not being able to take an adequate picture. I wanted to convey how small it looks. And really, I guess it is not that small, because our driver told us that the bus could pass a car, though it is a bit touchy, and certainly two cars can pass each other. If two buses enter from opposite ends, someone will need to back up. (Once you emerge, you start going down steeply winding roads, and we actually did pass an accident, though we managed to get down safely).

I have mentioned before how having a guide with a personal connection can make a difference, and also how we had a certain amount of luck with our timing, like with the takahe and the echidna. We kind of hit the motherload here.

Our driver was Sam, and since he was a broadly built redhead, he can introduce himself as Samwise Gamgee and it seems reasonable, though he would be a bit tall for a Hobbit. He was holding a baby during the layover in Te Anau, and he said it was his baby, but then she was being held by a woman in the middle of the bus, so I thought it had been a joke. Then she was being passed around among a few other passengers, and she did get brought up to the front, and I thought, okay, she is his, and the passengers are all helping, which is nice. Will I get a turn?

In reality, yes, she was his baby, but also riding along was Sam's wife (the child's mother), and both sets of grandparents. That's kind of a sweet thing to have happen anyway, but also, the wife's parents had raised their family in the area, and had gone camping in Fiordland many times. Her father told stories about the area, and we got to see pictures of floods and avalanches that had occurred.

Sam's father told us he was one of the few births resulting directly from the Homer tunnel. The tunnel was a public works project started during the depression in 1935 (that was not just the US, much like the current financial hardships are not just us). His father and his uncle worked on the tunnel, his uncle bringing his father along on days off, allowing his father and mother to meet. Anyway, it all just added some extra color, and the baby was cute.

One other possible useful tidbit. Trekking is a very popular activity in New Zealand in general, and specifically in the Fiordland Area. You would think that the Milford track would be the big one, but the heavily recommended one is Kepler. Probably worth checking out.

http://www.kiwidiscovery.com/index.cfm/milford
http://www.fiordland.org.nz/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer_Tunnel
http://www.newzealandnz.co.nz/great-walks/
http://harristravel.shutterfly.com/700