Tag: shark

Milford Sound – Fiords, Sharks and a Hike

We joined a small group with Trips & Tramps. It’s a scenic drive to Milford Sound with some good photo stops, e.g the Mirror Lakes.

As written in the previous article, Milford Sound is known as the wettest inhabited place in New Zealand and one of the wettest in the world (up to 9 meter rain per year!). Travel guides write it basically rains every day. Might be a bit exaggerated, but you get the idea. However, we had a warm and cloudless day and a wonderful time cruising through the fiords. After spotting some seals we wondered if we could also view some dolphins. Well… no, but even better. Even the captain and the tour guide were surprised, as a tresher shark jumped out of the water – multiple times. Hard to believe, but we have the footage. Gerry’s theory: the beginning of a Sharknado!

The ride back to Te Anau had to be earned. We did the Key Summit Trail hike and enjoyed New Zealand’s alpine region. Well, that was a day, even to our (now very high) benchmarks! Thank you, land of Kiwis!

  • Mirror Lakes
  • Milford Sound
  • Milford Sound
  • Jumping Tresher Shark
  • Jumping Tresher Shark
  • Milford Sound Waterfall
  • Milford Sound
  • Trap for stoats and weasels
  • Key Summit
  • Key Summit

Exmouth – Cape Range NP – Ningaloo Reef

Unfortunately, our planned “snorkel with mantas” tour from Denham has been cancelled, so nothing held us there and we drove till Exmouth. In the visitor center we booked a snorkel tour for Friday and then entered Cape Range National Park which also contains most of the famous Ningaloo Reef, which is mostly very near from the shore. So, we went snorkeling on our own and were greeted by colorful fishes and a sea turtle.

Turtle Power!

Later on we also spotted a stingray. From the beach we finally saw a shark in the water, so we decided to leave it for the day with snorkeling. Instead, we went to a bird hide and observed pelicans and other birds, before setting up our wilderness camp for the night at Ned’s Camp (directly at the beach within the park).

Shark Bay

Driving long distances through somewhat unvaried landscapes is also part of the Australian experience. Nevertheless, we could do some attractive stops on our way to Denham.

First one was at the Hamelin Pool and its stromatolites, the oldest known living species on earth.

Next stop was at Shell Beach – 60 km snow white beach, but instead of sand you walk on a layer (at some places up to 4m deep) of small shells. And from another viewpoint we could see sharks, indeed.

We did a quick visit in the François Peron National Park and enjoyed the red sand tracks.

Denham is a nice village, but in this time of the year a bit boring. We had almost the entire campground for us only.