In connection with the consideration to make the trip by helicopter or not, I recollected memories of various backpackers, we met in the course of our travelling. They had been wandering the world for long months, they arrived to the gates of wonderful places. The places which other people found worthwhile enough to fence them and charge admissions. The toll, even as low as $ 5 or 10, drew many of these travellers back and they just continue wandering further.

     I am thinking about it. Maybe they were already beyond that step and just gave up the kitshy creations of nature or old civilizations for enthusiastic children rejoicing every new and beautiful place. Some of us just seem to mature slowly, still catching their breath, when they stay in the desert watching the sunset, or are plunging into the candlelight of ancient temples. Blessed happy minded creatures. I love the euphoric feeling, which begin to overwhelm you, when you are standing at the threshold of the anticipated, but undisclosed for you so far. How long more?

     The trip to Fiordland was another inevitable stop on our journey around New Zealand’s South Island. We set out from Wanaka, which is actually within easy reach via crow fly. The real road winds among mountain massifs, and by itself would mean at least one week’s travel with the number of short trips. Maybe next time.

     Wide, huge and perfectly straight glacial valleys covered with infinite fields of a dense and high grass. Just to mow it, draw lines by lime, pitch gates and Football World Cup could start. There would be space for hundreds of football playgrounds like this, side by side. After several hundreds of kilometres by car, just outside Fiordland, we stayed over night in our car, where else, and in the morning we went to Doubtful Sound, which was the closest fiord.

     Ten o’clock in the morning, a gross fog evoking white smoke curls. Little man at Doubtful Sound’s parking place told us that, if we would arrive at Milford Sound till one P.M., we could have a chance for some few hours of wonderful weather. Only there we got to know that the total annual rainfall in Fiordland makes as much as 7000 litres per square meter. Fiordland is one of the rainiest places on Earth and the trip there is the luck of the draw purely. Once we went up the mountains, however, the weather showed itself in the bluest colours.

     We parked and in a little while, we had already tickets bought for the boat trip across the fiord situated bellow mountainsides climbing sometimes as high as up to 2,000 meters above sea level. It was literally true there. The fiord was dominated by Miter Peak, which grew up from the sea almost vertically up to 1,700 meters. Although we met no dolphins in the mouth of the bay, as a guide had promised, we finally saw a regular big fjord, as we had never been to Norway by then.

     My old-fashioned Nikon N2020 made me worried about its picture quality, as it went through couple of serious accidents before. A beautiful blue-gold day and splendid - even kitsch - panoramas rose my fears even more, as I saddened that I may not succeed in taking all the beauty with me, hidden in tiny film rolls. Salt sea air, fresh breeze and a free space around us, however, set us on feet again, after several hours spent in the car, and we wanted more. It drifted apart even my sorrow over the camera and we begun to search for a helicopter site. We were told that it was not far away.

     Evička, pleased that I didn’t hesitate to dive deeper into our budget, headed for the car cheerfully. We got in and guess what. I forgot to turn off the lights. Our beautiful white pickup Toyota Corona didn’t even cough. We could do nothing but going to the main building with box offices and seek for an assistance there. Eva sat down resignedly and her face seemed to express doubts about the day she met me. Regarding the fact that it was not first time we had to look for someone with starter cables, she coped with that bravely, however. We had found a young man from the box office staff and a few minutes later, we were already going to the helicopter landing area. I left an ignition key in the car meanwhile the engine was running and locked the car with another one.

     Couple of minutes later, when the helicopter spined round above the landing area and headed for a rocky wall with a waterfall, Eva began considering whether we really would must see everything. I was very excited and I didn't perceive much a slightly cramping feeling around my stomach. It was only right for me, that I didn't notice, how Eva, who was sitting between me and the pilot, was monitoring piteously his right leg steering a pedal.

     I tried to take some pictures meanwhile we were uprising along the waterfall. In a minute or two, we vaulted over the peak. A wide and very deep valley unfolded bellows us. Following dramatic shots from thrillers, the pilot dropped the chopper down, as we would have been pursuing by two Russian MiGs and we nearly flew up from the seats. I had to make big effort to deal with it.

     Only when we came back down to Earth, Eva admitted that at that moment, she was just about to step on the pilot’s brake - a tiny pedal under his right foot J The pilot probably did notice it, because he continued flying quite considerately after that. I tried to be funny and made a stupid question about how many choppers already lie down in the valleys. He looked at me pretty crossly. Later on, we learnt that a few weeks or months before our flight, a small plane with tourists crashed there, flying from Wanaka just to Fiordland. Better to think twice before you speak, my mom says.

    We landed on a glacier plateau at height of some 1,800 meters above the fjord. Everywhere around only mountains with white caps going up to the horizon and the sky incredibly blue and deep. The snow and ice glanced so much, which was almost impossible to open your eyes. Looking up, I had a feeling that I can see the stars. Impossible to defend the enthusiasm, which quickly ascended in the head.

The area, we could move around, was not too big. The glacier turned somewhere into the depth after a few meters covered with blue cracks. The way back, when we were able to feel and enjoy the space around us more then our bowls and fears, didn’t last more then a moment, unfortunately.

     Next time I would like to visit one of the many waterfalls named Sutherland, which falls down to the depth of more then half a kilometre. Several days trip to the mountains above the fiords hiking, provided the weather is good, is definitely going to be worth it!

     Meanwhile, the battery in the car recharged a bit and we continued travelling, this time towards the North of South Island, along the west coast.

Tomas, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
tranaslated by Eva