The Many Moods of Milford Sound

Milford Sound is, perhaps, the most iconic sight to see in New Zealand. In the summer tens of thousands of tourists flock to this southern fjord hoping to get that picture-perfect photograph of Mitre Peak, ideally reflected in the surrounding placid waters. Milford Sound is accessed by a 120 kilometre road through spectacular mountain scenery from Te Anau. It is in Fiordland National Park, which forms part of the UNESCO World Heritage area known as Te Wahi Pounamu and, with an annual rainfall of over 7 metres, is one of the wettest places on earth. It is the most northerly of the New Zealand's fjords, and the smallest. The traveller crosses the 45th parallel on the road journey from Te Anau, which makes this natural wonder closer to the Equator that the South Pole.

The iconic view of Mitre Peak, Milford Sound

But does the weather have to be pristine to get the best of Milford Sound? I have probably been into Milford Sound with tour groups around 100 times and I can categorically answer NO to that common question I often get from apprehensive tourists. Despite the area's heavy annual rainfall, Fiordland is, more often than not, rain free and clear. When it rains, it rains. From my experience the worst, and most disappointing, weather to experience in the fjords is misty, drizzly rain which fortunately does not occur very often.

Mitre Peak & Mt Pembroke, Milford Sound

To see the best of Milford Sound is to take one of the overnight boats operated by Real Journeys of Queenstown. In this way you can get the best of both worlds. Ideally, it will be pouring with rain on the evening of arrival, clearing overnight to a bright crisp morning of cloudless skies with mists wreathing the trees of the dense rainforest. What better time for an early morning kayak?

Mt Pembroke in the early morning from Harrison Cove, Milford Sound

But when the rain comes, it can come with a vengeance. Heavy rain overnight, or for a day or two, leads to a plethora of waterfalls with water pouring down every bare rockface, every tiny watercourse becomes a plunging, raging torrent. Water pours over the cliff-overhangs to be whipped away in the winds which can reach gale force in the fjord. I experienced one particularly fierce Tasman storm one morning in Milford Sound. The rain had been torrential all night, squalls of gale-force winds whipped up the surface of the waters and in the distance, through the murk, the wind-blown waters of Bowen Falls swirled well into the fjord. The 19th century Austrian taxidermist, Andreas Reischek described one such Fiordland storm as: "... one of the most sublime things I ever experienced."

A wild storm with Bowen Falls, Milford Sound

Waterfalls during such heavy rain are an unforgettable sight. Torrents plunge over every overhang, crashing down through the trees and occasionally set off what are commonly known as 'tree avalanches', or 'travalanches', when large mats of trees and other vegetation, with intertwined roots, lose their grip on the sheer rock slopes and plunge into the tannin-brown waters of the fjord. The scars last for dozens of years.

A temporary waterfall during heavy rain, Milford Sound

But when the rain finishes and the sun comes out, a rainbow arcs over Milford Sound, a reminder that all weather, particulalrly adverse weather, is ephemeral. Such is the beauty of Milford Sound and its larger neighbour, Doubtful Sound.

After the storm a rainbow arcs across Milford Sound

© Neil Rawlins  text & photography


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One Foot in Front of the Other

Some Surprising Facts About the Gallipoli Campaign

103 years ago, in the dawn light of a Mediterranean Spring morn, Anzac forces stormed ashore at a non-descript beach on the Gallipoli Peninsula in European Turkey in what was then the Ottoman Empire. At the same time British landed at Cape Helles at the head of the Peninsula and the French invaded a couple of beaches on the Asiatic shore not far from the site of ancient Troy. For the New Zealanders and Australians, a legend was born.

After around 9 months on the Peninsula, little strategic progress had been made and losses in dead and wounded had been horrific, the decision was made to evacuate the areas around Anzac Cove and the Cape Helles, leaving the Gallipoli Peninsula to the Turks. Ever since New Zealand and Australia have revered what was undeniably a defeat. Outsiders often express surprise that a defeat is so important, until it is pointed out that this was the first time that New Zealand and Australian troops were seen as separate entities to, and not just Colonial regiments of, the British Army. It was the day that our National identifies were established.

But there was much more to the Gallipoli Campaign than just the Anzac contribution. It was an idea, formulated by Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, to force the strategic waterway know as the Dardanelles giving access to the Russian Allies from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. Constantinople, the Ottoman capital, would surrender and Turkey would be out of the War. Churchill’s original plan was just to use the Royal Navy with support from the French  Navy and, at least from hindsight, with a little more tenacity could have succeeded. The first major attack was on the 18 March 1915 when British and French warships heavily bombarded the Turkish forts guarding the Dardanelles. The previous night a Turkish steamer had re-sown mines which the British had cleared over the preceeding days, and one French and three British warships hit mines and sank with heavy loss of life. This action has gone down in Turkish military legend with the story of Corporal Seyit, a gunner in one of the Turkish forts who, with his gun crew lying dead or dying around him, is said to have carried three shells, weighing 275kg each, to enable his gun to continue firing, causing considerable damage to the HMS Ocean, which later sank. When Corporal Seyit, who survived the war, was asked to re-enact his exploit for a photographer, he was unable to lift the shells, saying that it was no doubt the heat of battle and an instinct for survival that gave him superhuman strength. A wooden replica of a shell was used to satisfy the photographer. There is a diorama of this action in the War Museum at Anıtkabir, the Mausoleum of Kemal Atatürk, in Ankara and a statue of Corporal Seyit carrying a shell graces the waterfront at Eceabat, the town nearest the battlefields.

Part of the Battle of the Dardanelles diorama depicting Corporal Seyit, Anitkabir, Ankara

Besides the naval and military actions, there were a number of  military ‘firsts’ during the Gallipoli Campaign. It was one first campaigns where aircraft were used extensively, mainly for observation, from the first day of the landings and before. Little notice was taken of the intelligence supplied by this ‘new-fangled and unsporting’ innovation by the older ‘set-in-their-way’ British generals. In fact, even before the March attack on the Forts, the officers of HMS Majestic, which had been bombarding one of the Dardanelles forts, testing the defences, were enraged at the exploits of a Turkish airman, Captain Cemal, who, in an ancient Blériot XI aircraft, carrying in his lap four round cricket-sized grenades each with a wick, a lighted cigar clenched in his teeth, flew over the ship: “With his left hand Cemal picked up one of the bombs nestled in his lap and brought it towards his face. The fuse spat as it met the glowing cigar end. Like a pilot of old he tossed the sizzling bomb down towards the ship below. With a crack the metal ball split apart, but not over the wooden deck. Coolly Cemal dropped three more bombs while flying in a large gentle loop, Honour satisfied and both hands now back on the wheel, Cemal returned to the grass aerodrome outside Çanakkale. He had managed to eke out of the Blériot a top speed of 60mph on his triumphant flight home.” (Hugh Dolan – Gallipoli Air War)

The world’s first aircraft Carrier, HMS Ark Royal was deployed at Gallipoli as was the HMS Manica, the world’s first kite balloon carrier.  Throughout the campaign the airwar continued high above the trenches of Anzac Cove and Cape Helles. In fact the final Anzac combat casualty at Gallipoli was an Australian pilot who, with fewer than 20 hours flying experience, was shot down by an experienced German pilot the day after the successful evacuation.

Unbeknown to many there was also a very successful submarine war that was conducted in the Dardanelles and in the Sea of Marmara by the Australian and British navies.  While eight submarines out of thirteen that took part, were lost during the campaign, Turkish losses amounted to 2 battleships, a destroyer, 5 gunboats, 11 transports, 44 steamers and 148 sailing craft greatly affecting the supply of troops, ammunition and food to the Turkish defenders.

A  landing boat was still visible at Gaba Tepe in 1981

The other surprising thing about the Gallipoli campaign was the number of nationalities that actually took part. We have all heard of the Australian and New Zealand contribution as well as that of the British, but the French actually had more troops killed that the combined total of Anzacs, with a high percentage of these being Senegalese and Algerians. A large number of Indians, particularly Sikhs and Gurkhas, served in the British Army, many being killed. The Royal Newfoundland Regiment was involved and suffered some loss of life. Newfoundland was then a Dominion and did not become a province of Canada until 1949. The newly formed Zionist Mule Corps, which later became the Jewish Legion, a predecessor of the Israeli Army, landed at Cape Helles under the command of Col J.H. Patterson who had achieved fame in the 1890s by killing the infamous man-eating lions of Tsavo during the construction of the notorious ‘Lunatic Line’, the railway between the East African port of Mombasa and the highlands of Uganda. Besides the Zionist Mule Corps, there were a number of different supply corps present and I have seen Maltese, Cypriot and Moslem (probably from what is now Pakistan) graves in the various Gallipoli cemeteries.

Graves of Turkish soldiers at the Canakkale Martyrs Memorial, Gallipoli 

The Gallipoli Campaign was the first large scale amphibious invasion and the first to use a landing ship, the specially adapted collier River Clyde that was to be run aground at V Beach beneath the Sedd el Badr Fort, allowing the soldiers on board to capture it. The River Clyde was successfully beached, but unfortunately the guns of the fort had not been neutralised by the navy as planned and the ship became a death trap to the invading soldiers: “It was an extraordinary sight to watch our men go off, boat after boat, push off for a few yards, spring from the seats to dash into the water which was now less than waist deep. It was just on this point that the enemy fire was concentrated. Those who got into the water, rifle in hand and heavy pack on back, generally made a dive forward riddled through and through, if there was still life in them to drown in a few seconds.” (George Davidson – The Incomparable 29^th and the ‘River Clyde’). Six of the River Clyde’s crew received Victoria Crosses for their part in the action. After the war, the River Clyde was refloated, repaired and continued in service as a tramp steamer in the Mediterranean for another 50 years!

V Beach where the River Clyde was run aground & the Sedd el-Bahr Fort.  Insert River Clyde  at Cape Hellas, by
Charles Dixon

Winston Churchill, as First Lord of the Admiralty, took the blame for the debacle, fell on his sword and resigned from Parliament. Recently I came upon a very interest comment written by Churchill in a little-known book called Thoughts and Adventures and I will quote it verbatim:

“If these thoughts are true about small personal matters, consider how much more potent and how final would be a new choice with foreknowledge upon some great or decisive issue. When my armoured train was thrown off the rails by the Boers in the South African War and I had to try to clear the line under fire, I was obliged to keep getting in and out of the cab of the engine which was our sole motive power. I therefore took off my Mauser pistol, which got in my way. But for this I should forty minutes later have fired two or three shots at twenty yards at a mounted burgher named Botha, who summoned me to surrender. If I had killed him on that day, November 15, 1899, the history of South Africa would certainly have been different and almost certainly would have been less fortunate. This was the Botha who afterwards became Commander-in-Chief of the Boers and later Prime Minister of the South African Union. But for his authority and vigour the South African rebellion which broke out at the beginning of the Great War might never have been nipped in the bud. In this case the Australian and New Zealand army corps then sailing in convoy across the Indian Ocean would have been deflected from Cairo to the Cape. All preparations to divert the convoy at Colombo had actually been made. Instead of guarding the Suez Canal it would have fought with the Boer insurgents. By such events both the Australian and South African points of view would have been profoundly altered. Moreover, unless the Anzacs had been available in Egypt by the end of 1914 there would have been no nucleus of an army to attack the Gallipoli Peninsula in the spring, and all that tremendous story would have worked out quite differently. Perhaps it would have been better, perhaps it would have been worse. Imagination bifurcates and loses itself along the ever-multiplying paths of the labyrinth.”
© Neil Rawlins  text & photography


Travel books by the author available on Amazon

Travels in another time - Neil Rawlins

Street Art in Australasia

In my perambulations around several Australasian cities over the last few months I have been fascinated by the amount of colourful and imaginative street art found in city streets when one looks for it. Stemming from the copious inane scrawlings of the faceless that have defaced seedier urban environments, graffiti art has now evolved,  thanks to the talents of artists like Banksy, into an interesting and colourful art form.

Authorities in New Zealand's earthquake-ravaged Christchurch, where some 70% of the central city's buildings were either destroyed or structurally damaged in the 2011 quake, have encouraged street artists to utilise the temporary profusion of blank walls while the rebuild goes on. Blank walls surrounding carparks are also favoured spots and councils in Wellington and Dunedin have seen the aesthetic benefits of encouaging not just loca, but also internationally renown, street artists. In Australia, Melbourne has a number of  narrow lanes in the central city specifically dedicated to graffiti art, with Hosier and AC/DC Lanes, the latter named after the popular rock group, being particularly colourful and the Sydney suburb of Newtown also has a number of back streets dedicated to this urban artform. Even smaller cities and towns in both countries have some interesting murals by internationally renown artists.

I have selected ten of the many masterpieces I have seen in New Zealand and Australia over the last six months.

This very fine triple portrait by Xoë Hall, in Ghuznee St, Wellington, is a tribute to the pop star David Bowie who passed away in January 2016.

A parking lot at the Christchurch Casino is dominates by the 'Lips' of  Tilt, a French artist.

This bizarre artwork on a building in Vogel St, Dunedin is by the British muralist Phlegm,

Cleverly portrayed hands, holding pencils, seemingly draw the child-like graffiti at the entrance to AC/DC Lane in downtown Melbourne.

A suburban building in Newtown, Sydney, is completely covered in a rather puzzling, but well executed, 'sealife' mural.

The Belgian artist ROA specialises in wild animals and this giant octopus covers the facade of an office block in central Nelson, New Zealand.

In this new mural in the Westland town of Greymouth the artist has rather cleverly utilised the background trees to create the 'hair' of his portraits.

A colourful mural in Alice Springs reflects the desert history of this region in the geographical heart of Australia.

This rather cleverly-executed sailing ship appears to be about to tip down the side of a building in Taupo, New Zealand.

Perhaps this quote epitomises the thought processes of a successful street artist - this work is by the British artist Richard 'Pops' Baker and is in Allen St., Christchurch.

© Neil Rawlins  text & photography

My travel books:    One Foot in Front of the Other - First Steps

One Foot in Front of the Other - Full Stride

available from Amazon

Images through a Traveller's Lense - Taj Mahal

The first time I saw the Taj Mahal it was raining. A cold heavy rain was falling when my group scurried from the tour coach through the entrance gate and peered disappointingly at the large white edifice at the far end of what was anything but a reflecting pool on this day. We had all heard so much about the famous Taj Mahal, it was to be a highlight of our trip, but as I looked through the rain, at some hardy umbrella-toting souls as they splashed  their way towards the Taj, I was not disappointed. It would be another nine & a half years and under much better conditions before I saw the Taj, that supreme token of one man's love for his wife, again. It was truly magnificent. A sight that has inspired poets & writers for centuries: "The eye of the sun overflows with tears from looking at it; its shadow is like moonlight to the earth." And to the Indian writer Rabindranath Tagore it was "a teardrop on the cheek of time."

                          Sheltering beneath umbrellas, hardy souls make their was in the cold rain
                           towards the magnificent structure of the Taj Mahal.
   

                         The second time I saw the Taj was under much better conditions - the sun
                          was shining, the sky was blue, there was no wind,school children in their
                           red uniforms were excitedly making the most of this perfect day.
                     

                           Resplendent against a blue sky, the beauty of the Taj Mahal lies in the
                            exquisite marble work. Delicately sculpted panels, many inlaid with
                            semi-precious stone are a tribute to the artisans of so long ago.

          

                            The workmanship on a small mosque beside the Taj is also
                            impressive, even though it is constructed essentially from the local
                            red sandstone.

                            The reflecting pools are designed to duplicate this magnificent
                             building.
 

                             Also in Agra, & a few years older than the Taj, is the Tomb of the

                             Itmad-ud Daulah, a Persian official whose daughter married the 

                             Moghul Emperor Jahangir. He was also the grandfather of Mumtaz, 

                             the lady of the Taj.

                             Like the Taj Mahal, the Tomb of Itmad-ud Daulah is decorated with
                             delicate & interesting marble work, as this panel shows.

                               In the tradition of the Taj marble work, other palaces in Moghul
                               India have equally delicate inlay, as this marble insect attests.

                                  In the early 1980s I met master craftsman Naqi Uddin, a descendant
                                  of the craftsman who worked on the inlay work on the Taj. Then in
                                  his late 80s, Naqi Uddin was often called in the replace or repair
                                  inlay work in the Taj that had been damaged by thoughtless visitors.
                                  Naqi's own work was exquisite, be it a table or marble plate.

                                 A marble inlay plate by Naqi Uddin is richly decorated with 

                                lapis lazuli, malachite, carnelian, jasper, & mother-of-pearl.

                                Hopefully Naqi has been able to pass on his skills to a new generation.

© Neil Rawlins  text & photography

Travel books by the author available on Amazon

Images through a Traveller's Lense - Kathmandu, 1970

My first impression on arriving in Kathmandu in February 1970, was that I was stepping back several centuries - even though I had arrived by air, & had been transported to my hotel by bus. But in the centre of Kathmandu there was little in the way of modern transport to indicate that it was the second half of the 20th century, At first nervously, then with more confidence, I wandered around the city, rubbing shoulders with Newaris, Gurungs, Tibetans, Indians. I was fascinated with this polyglot mixture of races and religions. It was here that I first came upon Hinduism & Buddhism, although I couldn't then differentiate between the two. I was approached by beggars, hashish salesmen  and a flute saleman. Money changers offered good rates for foreign cash - even travellers cheques.  In those days there were still officially sanctioned hashish shops, especially in hippy haven of Freak Street. The sights, sounds and smells were all alien to me and I loved it. Even then I knew that I would be back.

                           On my first afternoon, as I walked around the bustling streets of Thamel
                          with some fellow travellers, a porter carrying a bundle of half-cured hides
                           pushed passed us.

                            In 1970 Rickshaws were the main form of transport around town.

                             Street vendors fascinated me. This man, along with his daughter, was
                             selling skeins of brightly-coloured wool.

                             The uninhibitedness of life in the streets amazed me. I had not
                              experienced this before. Here passers-by nonchalantly walk by
                              women washing their hair, & cooking utensils. Children play while
                              pi-dogs & their puppies scavenge for tidbits,

                               In a back street I came across this husband and wife, she wielding a
                               large sledge-hammer while he, presumably the technical brain,
                                slowly turned  a red-hot piece of iron on an anvil.
 

                              In a quiet town square a man shuffled past with two water containers
                              hooked up to a yoke across his shoulders.

                             Naked & semi-naked children play in the dust by some large clay
                              water jars.

                             My perambulations took me to iconic Durbar Square in the centre
                             of  Kathmandu. Unfortunately many of these temples were badly
                             damaged in the powerful earthquake of April 2015.

Text & photography © Neil Rawlins

Full accounts of my travels can be found in my two Kindle ebooks:

                     see my books:   One Foot in Front of the Other: First Steps   

                           and:              One Foot in Front of the Other: Full Stride

      'First Steps' tells the story of my early travels on the Overland routes in Asia & Africa. 

       'Full Stride' recounts my experiences as a tour leader on the Asian Overland routes and elsewhere

              in Rajasthan, Kashmir, Turkey & Tunisia.

Images through a Traveller's Lense - Singapore 1970

Singapore was the first truly foreign city I visited.  I arrived to a cacophony of sound - fireworks, bands, lion dancers, on the eve of the Chinese New Year in February 1970. I was a little bit taken aback and somewhat nervous. In 1970 none of the modernisation that has characterised this maritime crossroads had taken place. Atmospheric Chinatown, with its fascinating street life, still existed. I was staying in the iconic New Seventh Storey Hotel in Rochor Rd, the tallest building in that part of the city which afforded great views over Singapore. 

                          From the restaurant in the upper floor of the New 7th Storey Hotel I
                          able able to view the Dragon dances & fireworks in the Rochor Rd below.

                   

                            In 1970 Singapore was much different from the Singapore of today.
                            From the top floor of the New 7th Storey Hotel there was a clear
                            view of the Sultan Mosque above the old shops of Chinatown.

Next morning, armed with my camera, a Ricoh SLR I set out into the teeming streets of Singapore, at first tentatively, but as time rolled on, with much more confidence. All was new and my biggest regret was only having a limited amount of slide film as I was continuing on, Overland to London over the next couple of months. Although I never saw the result until I reached London, I was generally happy with my photos considering the only film I used was the very slow Kodakchrome ASA25.
                             
                           

                        One of the first sights I saw in the Singapore streets was this late model MG                                       impaled on lamppost in Beach Rd. Perhaps the result of the previous night's binge!

                           

                           The street life in Singapore fascinated me, and I was especially surprised
                            to see well-made fancy coffins being made in a back street.

                             Hawkers stalls & food shops were an eye-opener. The shop, with 

                              smoked chickens hanging for sale did not disappoint. 

         

                           Outside spiral-staircases were a common feature on many appartments

                           in Singapore in the early 1970s. Modern high-rise apartments have now

                           replaced these precarious constructions.

By the time I returned to Singapore 18 years later most of this had disappeared and although I have not been back since, I have be told that all this, including the New 7th-Story Hotel in Rochor Rd has now gone forever.

© Neil Rawlins  text & photography

                      see my books:   One Foot in Front of the Other: First Steps   

                           and:              One Foot in Front of the Other: Full Stride

      These books tell the story of my early travels on the Overland routes in Asia & Africa & also my experiences as a tour leader on the Asian Overland and elsewhere.