Special Interest Tours | Fiordland - At the Edge of the World - 11 day)

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Fiordland - At the Edge of the World One of the last great wilderness areas of the Globe, New Zealand’s Fiordland National Park is unique. Undoubtedly wet, it is the water that has made this area the special place it now is. Water, once frozen, formed huge Glaciers which ground their way from the mountains into the sea. Water, which now falls as torrential rain, renders normally benign streams into raging torrents in a matter of minutes. Water nourishes the dense rainforest which clings precariously to the near vertical slopes of these steep coastal chasms. Water, tannin stained, lies atop the salty seawaters of the fjords, creating a unique underwater environment in which flourishes many rare & unusual species of sealife.

Maoris fished & hunted seals long before the Europeans arrived. Captain Cook set up an observatory on Astronomer Point in Dusky Sound. Sealers soon depleted the huge populations of New Zealand fur seals & set up a depot in Dusky Sound, Whalers set up a shore base in Preservation Inlet & gold miners drove shafts, erected stamper batteries & built smelters in the soggy valleys of Preservation Inlet. An early conservationist, Richard Henry, made the first attempt to save the endangered kakapo a hundred years ago on Resolution Island in Dusky Sound.

Tour Dates in 2010 -

4 days Queenstown & Doubtful Sound - daily departures October - April from NZ$736.00 share twin

7 days Queenstown, Milford Sound & Doubtful Sound - daily departures from NZ$1820.00 share twin

Experience the beauty of overnight stays on the tranquil waters of both Milford Sound (Milford Mariner) & Doubtful Sound (Fiordland Navigator). Out package includes a two stay in Queenstown before travelling by coach to Milford Sound to join the Milford Mariner for an evening cruise down spectacuar Milford Sound to the Tasman Sea. There is time to kayak in a tranquil bay before sailing back down the fjord to Harrison Cove in the shadow of Mt Pembroke, your overnight mooring. Next day you return by coach along the Milford Road to Te Anau. This afternoon to visit the Te Ana-au Glowworm Caves across Lake Te Anau. You next travel the short distance to Pearl Harbour on Lake Manapouri, where a launch takes you to West Arm to connect with a coach which takes you over the Wilmot Pass to Doubtful Sound where you join the Fiordland Navigator. Doubtful Sound is much larger than Milford, has three major arms and is protected from the Tasman by Secretary Island. Depending on the time of the year, Fiordland crested penguins can be seen as can the New Zealand fur seal & the world's southernmost pod of bottlenose dolphins. The next morning, experience the transquil beauty of Hall Arm, before retracing steps over Wilmot Pass, across Manapouri & back to Queenstown.

11 days Queenstown, Milford Sound, Preservation Inlet to Doubtful Sound from NZ$3355.00 share twin

Our special tour begins in Queenstown where you spend two nights. The second day is free to enjoy the excitement of the town arguably called 'the Adventure Capital of the World'. . On day 3 you travel by coach down the famous Milford Road to Milford Sound where a 2 hour cruise takes you beneath towering Mitre Peak, past majestic Waterfalls to the Tasman Sea. On return you travel by coach back down the Milford Road to Te Anau where you spend the night. The next day travel the short distance to Lake Manapouri where a launch takes you across one of New Zealand's most beautiful lakes to West Arm.

From West Arm a helicopter whisks you down the remote Tay Valley & over the Fiordland mountains to isolated Preservation Inlet, the southernmost of New Zealand's fjords, we you join the Milford Wanderer, your home for the next 6 nights. Weather conditions will determine the itinerary over the coming days, but you will have a chance to explore the remnants of the gold-mining operations in Preservation Inlet, perhaps visit the remote Puysegar Point lighthouse. In Chalky Inlet see the remains of the supply boat Stella and venture into little-visited Edwardson Sound. Dusky Sound, the largest of the fjords, has close connections with Captain James Cook who set up a camp on Astronomer Point on his second visit to New Zealand in 1773. On board Cook's Resolution was William Hodges, a talented landscape artists who painted the first detailed painting of New Zealand and the South Pacific. It was here in Dusky Sound that the first 'permanent' European settlement, a supply base for sealers, was established in the 1790s and also where NZ's first known shipwreck occurred. After a final run up the coast Febrero Point is rounded and the Hare's Ears are left in the wake as the Milford Wanderer enters Doubtful Sound. The voyage ends at Deep Cove and a coach takes you over the Wilmot Pass and back down to West Arm from where you travle back across Lake Manapouri. A coach will transport you back to Queenstown. The helicopter journey operates from Preservation Inlt to West Arm on tours AED 1, 3 & 5.

AED 2 Wed 12 May - Sat 22 May 2010

AED 3 Thu 29 July - Sun 8 August 2010

AED 4 Wed 4 August - Sat 14 August 2010

AED 5 Thu 12 August - Sun 22 August 2010

AED 6 Wed 18 August - Sat 28 August 2010