We woke up early Friday morning to head to the airport. Andrew still didn’t know where we were going; at least it hadn’t been confirmed. He had guessed it would be Queenstown and Milford Sound. When we got to the airport I showed him all of our travel confirmations and brochures. He was surprised at least to see that we were going on an overnight cruise of Milford Sound!
When flying into Queenstown it was evident that the landscape was nothing like that of the North Island, as it’s in the heart of the Southern Alps. Queenstown is set in a valley, surrounded by mountains and on the shore of Lake Wakatipu. The lake water was the bluest and clearest we had ever seen. Even though it was still the off-season, there were still plenty of tourists there. Queenstown thrives on tourism, and it’s no surprise. It looks just like what you would imagine a ski village to be. It’s busiest in July and August when the mountains have snow and ski resorts are open. There are plenty of Summer-time activities as well. We saw no less than a dozen paragliders above the village, having jumped off a tall, nearby mountain. We just took the gondola up the mountain for the amazing view! We had a leisurely day walking around, eating and drinking well. We were excited to get on the road early the next morning to Milford, as the guide book talked of lots of scenic wonders along the way.
As the crow flies, the distance from Queenstown to Milford is not that great. But there is no straight road. You have to drive south a little over an hour to Mossburn, then west for about 45 minutes to Te Anau, before heading back up north and further west to Milford. Instead of a straight road (do any exist in NZ?) it’s a big U. It’s a narrow, winding and hilly drive, which seems to be so common in this country. It starts with a one-lane bridge out of Queenstown and the scenery never lets up. The whole drive you’re surrounded by mountains with glacial fields on top, green meadows and the clearest blue water ever. After passing Te Anau you enter Fiordland National Park which is stunning. After a little over an hour’s drive from Te Anau we came to a turn off on a gravel road to Hollyford Camp which guide book described as “interesting”. There were no other cars on the road, so we really felt remote! We did come to an actual “camp” with simple, worn, shed-looking buildings for people to stay in, I guess. There was a main office of sorts, but it looked deserted to us. Further down the road we passed a clearing in the trees and saw a swinging bridge over the Tutoko River! On the other side was a path through the woods. I would have loved to follow it to see where it went, but we had to be in Milford by 4:00. About 20km down the road it dead ends, where we came to another foot path which led to the Humboldt Falls. Walking through the woods you realize just how diverse New Zealand is. Just on our drive from Queenstown we had seen snow capped mountains, glacial flows, green meadows, rivers and lakes, and now thick, damp, green forest with tons of mosses and ferns. After the falls, we drove back to the paved road to continue to Milford. From the road there were great views of Mitre Peak, which is 1692 metres (5560 feet) high. It’s one of the highest mountains in the world that rise directly from the ocean floor. We were told that this highway to Milford is one of the most expensive in the world to maintain. In Winter they have to continuously “bomb” the mountains to create avalanches, then clear the snow off of the road (to prevent accidental avalanches). The road is often closed between 6:30pm and 9:00am, cutting off the town of Milford which has a population of less than 150. Despite this, there are quite a few motor coaches that make the trip, shuttling tourists to the cruise terminals. The town consists of a non-commercial airport, a café and bar and the cruise terminal. The last gas station is in Te Anau, 120 km down the motorway.
We got to Milford with time enough to spare to have a couple beers at the café and take in our surroundings. We then boarded the boat and headed out into the Sound. Although it’s called a “sound”, we were told that it’s actually a fiord, as the deep, narrow inlets were carved out by glaciers. The boat anchored for the night and we had a chance to get out in kayaks and explore. Dinner and drinks followed. We met an American couple from Florida that evening. His take on NZ was that if you were to take all of the best sights that the U.S. has to offer, and cram them into a relatively small space, you have NZ. I thought that was a pretty good description. The next morning we cruised the full length of the sound, out to the Tasman Sea. As soon as we left the protection of the fiords, the sea was really rough with huge swells. On the way back into the Sound we pulled right up next to the spray from the waterfalls, cascading down the fiords. Then we went to an underwater aquarium of sorts. It was a free standing, anchored, circular aquarium with thick plexi-glass windows. We walked down a circular staircase to the bottom and they turned on the outside lights so we could see the sea life. Although we were only about 9 or 10 meters down, the sea life there is usually found at 40 meters and deeper. This is because the huge amounts of fresh rainwater that Milford Sound gets, (over 6 meters of rain per year!) floats on top of the salt water and filters out a lot of the sunlight. So, the animals think they’re much deeper than they actually are. It would be a great place to go diving! Someday…
Anyone who comes to NZ must go to Fiordland. It just can’t be missed!
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