Today is Sunday 14th December, and its another rest day off the bike, substituting an 8 hour round-trip drive from Queenstown to Milford Sound. The first 3 hours of the drive were NZ stunning scenery, but the last hour defies description. Even the photos from the trusty iPhone just don’t do this area justice. Towering mountains on all sides, countless waterfalls that look like white painted lines in the crevices until you look closely and see water flowing down from the heights. Most of the snow has melted already and a local guide told me that the recent rainfall is responsible for these waterfalls that are flowing in summer.
In the final 30 minutes or so of the journey in to Milford Sound you drive through a 1-2 KM tunnel that punches through the heart of the mountain, only wide enough for 1 lane of traffic so a traffic light alternates the flow through the tunnel.
Once back out in daylight, you have an amazing descent and numerous switch-backs. The issue is the scenery is so captivating the driver really needs blinders on to stay focused on the task of making it down the mountain road safely.
Here are some photos of the journey to Milford Sound. The best part of the drive you just cannot capture without getting out and walking, but I was on a schedule – I had a boat to catch.
Once arrived at Milford Sound you must park in one of the public parking lots and pay NZ$10 per hour. They make you guesstimate how much time you need. Cruises are 90 minutes typically and you still have to walk to the cruise terminal and potentially get a drink in the cafe on the way back to the car – 3 hours should do it then.
The cruise takes you all the way to the Tasman Sea, following a left hand of the inlet pattern. You make the U-Turn at the Tasman sea and go back the way you came, only on the other side of the channel now. You see waterfalls up close and often, some marine sea life. On this trip, we only saw 3 young seals basking on a rock. It was a sight to see the massive mountain sides reaching up out of the sea to touch the clouds – it was like a fantasy movie set. The wind was blowing hard on the outbound journey as we were sailing into the wind, and it was hard to stand up on the top deck without hanging onto something.
90 minutes later we were back at the dock and time to go get a hot drink and a blueberry muffin for lunch. In the one cafe at Milford Sound, there weren’t a lot of open tables as you can imagine with several cruises returning in quick succession, so I found the first table with a couple of seats available and asked if I could join them at “their” table. They graciously agreed and weaved me into their conversation, they were a family, two elderly sisters and one of their middle aged daughters. They were fun to chat with and we had a few laughs at my expense :-). All but one of them live in New Zealand and I think they enjoy hearing visitors attempt to pronounce the Mauri place names. When they asked where was I off to next on my travels, I said Lake Tekapo – innocently… The elder of the sisters had a big grin on her face and she said “I just heard you’re off to take-a-poo”. Bathroom humor is not only for the little kids apparently! I got an education on the proper pronunciation which is Lake Tek-a-poh. I stand corrected 🙂
On the drive back to Queenstown before reaching the big mountain tunnel I came across people filming a large bird so had to stop and figure out what they were so interested in. It was a pair of “Kea” – a rather large, dusky green parrot which apparently have quite a reputation for being intelligent, mischeivious, and a bit of a thief when it comes to raiding the contents of cars! I didn’t know any of this so had left my car parked with the windows down… Engrossed with the birds and recording their “crying” sound I didn’t notice initially that these birds ride on top of cars and motorhomes instead of flying! One guy said this is one of their favorite things to do besides raiding food out of cars with windows left open… uh oh!!! I ran back to my car just in time – a Kea was sitting on the passenger side mirror and was looking around the inside thinking about hopping in… I got the window rolled up and took some pictures of him/her.
I stopped at a few roadside sights on the way back to Queenstown, including a stop for coffee in a neat little town call Te Anau. Looks like a really nice place to stay and use as a base for several days of activities.
Milford Sound is an untouched location that is flourishing because there is no human encroachment, except in the area that the cruises depart from. Its amazing to see trees and vegetation growing on the rock of the mountains – there must be soil there but the slops are nearly vertical in places yet still the vegetation has a stong hold. When the wind dies down, the silence of this place has to be witnessed first hand to be believed.
This is a day I will not forget. I hope to return again, equipped for a longer stay on site to hike the trails, and possibly spend the $$$ to go on the overnight cruise and experience this natual wonderland at night too.
Tomorrow is a travel day as its time to leave Queenstown and make my way to Lake Take a poo, I mean Tek-a-poh 🙂 Hopefully the weather will remain nice so I can get in a couple of rides in that area too.