Well 13 hours and 600 kilometers later, Tom and I made it to Milford Sound and back. And WHAT.A.DAY. Picture perfect, not a cloud in the sky day. Absolutely gorgeous.
Now a quick bit about Milford Sound. Although it has “sound” in the name, Milford Sound is actually a fiord (created by glaciers not water) located in southwest of Queenstown and is known for its towering peaks, rainforests and waterfalls. The beauty of the area is world renowned making Milford Sound the top tourist attraction in New Zealand.
Anyway, we started our day with a 6:30 a.m. pickup in a 16 passenger glass roof Mercedes mini-bus. The bus was full and included folks from Australia, the U.S. and Canada. I turned out to be a pretty good group. Chris, our driver and guide for the day, was lovely and did yeoman’s work driving all the way to Milford Sound and back.
The morning started out cloudy (although that would quickly change) with a drive south out of Queenstown and through the Remarkables on a very windy road. The road took us along the shores of Lake Wakatipu, which turns out is 87 km long and 400 meters at its deepest point. (Did not learn that yesterday when we were out on Lake Wakatipu … but thanks to Chris we gained a bit of Lake Wakatipu knowledge!)
Eventually we left Lake Wakatipu and the very windy road behind, and we spent the next hour or so driving through a lot of sheep and cattle country with the odd little town here and there. I ended up dozing for a bit as did Tom.
By 9:00 a.m. we were pulling into Te Anu, a lake front resort area where we stopped for some breakfast and a break before carrying on.
The second half of the trip was far more interesting as the sky was now clearing and we started to move into the mountains. After leaving Te Anu, we made a quick stop nearby at the Te Anu Downs, which is the gateway to the area known as “Fiordland”, the area filled with a myriad of lakes, rivers and streams originating from the many glaciers in the area and leading to Milford Sound.
After Te Anu Downs, we began the journey through the Fiordland National Park, which is filled with numerous rainforests, eventually reaching the Misty Mountains by 11:00ish where we stopped for some pictures. The scenery was really quite pretty.
And not too far down the road we made our next stop at Mirror Lake. The lake is apparently renowned for the reflections on the lake, and while Tom and I found it lovely, we actually thought the lake we kayaked on in Franz Josef (Lake Mapourika) provided better reflections.
Anyway, we wandered the 100 meter or so foot path and then climbed back in the mini-bus to continue through the towering rain forest filled with fir trees and scarred by more than one landslide.
As we continued on winding through the rain forest we stopped at a gorgeous lookout point featuring three different mountains and a mountain range to the right. Now in front of us were two huge hilly mountains that looked like (sorry about this) a couple of uneven boobs with a snow covered mountain in the middle. Mount Christina was to the left and the appropriately named Mount Lyttle (it was after all the smaller one) was to the right. And in the middle was the gorgeous snow covered Mount Crosscut, while the snow covered mountain range to the right was the Humboldt Mountains surrounded by enormous forest and the Hollyford River.
The sheer size and beauty of these mountains was simply stunning and the topper was not a cloud in the sky. It was absolutely perfect weather. (And sadly four years ago, this same area had been overwhelmed by a once in a generation rainstorm that wiped out the road and left over 1,000 people stranded for four days at Milford Sound. The army had to be brought in to transfer people out and it took two years to rebuild the road.)
Anyway, from here, we continued along the newly rebuilt road before making one more stop at “the Chasm” a large waterfall adjacent to the Hollyford River. We parked in a safe spot off to the side of the road, which meant I had to take a bit of a walk back and cross the road to look at the Chasm and then cross back to get a better look at the Hollyford River, which is fed solely by the nearby glaciers.
After this last stop, we started the ascent through the mountains and at the top of the climb we entered the 1.8 km tunnel (which is a one way tunnel so we ended up having to wait a few minutes for the tunnel to clear) before exiting to spectacular mountain views. As we descended, we caught a glimpse of the tallest peak in the Fiordland National Park, Mount Tutoko, before driving around a series of bends and twenty minutes later pulling into the Milford Sound parking lot.
By 12:30, we had our boat tickets in hand and were boarding our small boat for a 90 minute ride around Milford Sound. Tom and I decided to sit outside on the back of the boat and it turned out to the be the perfect location. Everyone else was opting for the top deck or the front of the boat, so we more or less had the whole backside to ourselves allowing us to move from side to side unimpeded with perfect views of the sound.
Anyway, by 12:45 we were under way and I cannot emphasize enough what an absolutely glorious day we had for the cruise. Simply perfect. And this was particularly so given that the area receives between 7 and 11 meters of rain annually!
So as we left the harbor, we passed by Lady Elizabeth Bowen Falls, followed by the Hanging Gardens, covered in lush vegetation growing out of the rocks and crevasses and Mitre Peak, probably the most iconic peak in Milford Sound.
And across from Mitre Peak, we passed Stirling Falls, a small waterfall (it is after all the dry season) before reaching the windiest part of the sound where the highest winds have been recorded at over 177 knots or 327 km. YIKES! I wouldn’t want to be on the water for that!
From here, we headed further south into … the South Sea, which the Captain said was one of the calmest days they have had this year. There was literally no chop. Highly, highly unusual. And the interesting thing about the South Sea is that off in the distance on a little sliver of land, we could make out a faint dark line marking the two tectonic plates (the Australian and Pacific plats) that cause New Zealand to face so many earthquakes.
At this point, the Captain slowly turned the boat around and we began out journey back this time passing close to the Kissing Turtles (two rocks that look like turtles kissing) and seal rock where four juvenile male seals were sunning themselves on a large rock jutting out of the sound. (Unfortunately, we did not see any dolphins or penguins, but we got our share is Acaroa so no complaints here.)
After pausing for pictures in front of the seals, we continued on stopping close to the Stirling Falls, where the spray was pretty impressive for falls running at less than 100%. In fact, I ended up closing my camera as I was afraid the spray may affect the lense. I ended up pulling out my camera again, once we were well away from the spray and still managed some nice pictures.
The Captain then directed the boat into a small bay where we were able to capture magnificent views of Pembroke Glacier. This might have been my favorite spot of the whole trip. The glacier glistened in the sun and the surrounding area really popped in the sunlight. Absolutely gorgeous.
We then made one more pass by Mitre Peak, the Hanging Gardens and Lady Elizabeth Bowen Falls before heading back to shore. The trip around Milford Sound had far, far exceeded my expectations. And as Tom and I both commented, we can’t imagine seeing the Milford Sound in the rain. While the waterfalls may be much more impressive, it would be really hard to see the mountains, glaciers and greenery. We certainly had luck on our side.
So after disembarking, we found Chris, offloaded five folks who were going to fly back (which was an option, but I said no way I am flying in a tiny plane through all those mountains … I still have 4 ½ months of travel!) so Tom and I went with the others back to the mini-bus and spent the next four hours (with one stop) driving back to Queenstown. (And as it turned out, the trip back was much faster given we only had the one short stop.). We arrived back in Queenstown at about 6:45 and I called it a day, while Tom went into town for pizza.
Tomorrow, we are back on a bus doing a scenic tour to Mt. Cook, which then takes back to Christchurch. Fortunately, there will be lots of stops to break up the 11 hour bus trip.
