Thursday, August 25th, 2011
My Thursday morning started quite early with an 0645 pick-up at my hotel. Today I was heading out to Milford Sound, a place I'm told is probably one of the most beautiful places on the planet. I certainly can't disagree.
If you look at a map, you will see that Milford Sound and Queenstown are not that far apart.
Look, here's a map now.
If you look at the map again you will notice that the only road between Queenstown and Milford Sound goes a really long way around. So what could be an hour-ish drive actually turns into a 5 hour trip (each way). But the bus is actually really big and comfortable so it wasn't that bad. There is the option to fly in and out of Milford Sound, however as expected it is very expensive and weather dependent. Weather (and my cash flow) made the bus the only option.
This is the bus. Lots of big windows and the seat were all on an angle and nicely reclined so you always had a great view. The ceiling was also all windows so you never missed the view of the mountains.
As the sun came up the bus travelled past the Remarkable Mountains. Theses mountains really are movie stars as they were the back drop for many (many) scenes in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. They play the Misty Mountains. Quite a few scenes in Lord of the Rings were filmed in and around the Queenstown area.
The lake you can just make out in the bottom of the picture above is Lake Wakatipu that Queenstown sits on. It is New Zealand's 3rd largest lake and at 80 kilometres (50 miles), it is the country's longest lake. I'm also told it is very cold (I'm taking their word for it because I'm not hopping in to check it out). Wet suits are recommended in many parts of the lake year round to stave off hypothermia.
The bus is not equipped with a toilet so as you can imagine we were required to make several stops along the way but of course with all the wonderful things to see you wanted to be off the bus and out walking around.
Our first big stop was at a little town called Te Anau. A very nice little town with cafes and little shops.....and a pharmacy that still has a supply of pseudoephedrine. We didn't have much time to check it out before we had to head off but enough time to grab a snack before heading off.
This is a Takahe (not a scale representation). This mountain bird was thought to be extinct but in 1948 it was re-discovered. The chances of seeing an actual Takahe are still pretty rare but this is the only area in the world that you can still see them. They hide out in the mountains on the far side of Fiordland National Park (New Zealand's largest National Park) which is not easy to get to....unless you are doing some serious hiking.
My view from the bus. Was not bad at all.
A look at some of the Southern Alps. Due to the shifting of the plates, they are constantly being forced upwards but constant erosion keeps them about the same height.
Our second stop was at the Mirror Lakes. Once again, some of this area was used in the filming of the Lord of the Rings.
At one of our scenery stops along the way.
Unfortunately it wasn't all sunshine and pretty views. We did get some cloud but the rain mostly stayed away.
A look at some of the road we were travelling along. This is just on the Milford Sound side of Homer Tunnel. Homer Tunnel is about 270 metres (886 feet) long and is built through hard granite. Because the granite was so hard there was no need to re-enforce it.
Here is a look at The Chasm (another one of our stops along the way). It has been formed by years of erosion from the Cleddau River. It probably is a lot deeper than it looks. I assure you The Chasm is a great name.
This is a Kea......a cute little bird (a mountain parrot) that you will see throughout New Zealand. The National Park people really encourage tourists not to feed them, but the little keas......make it really hard not to feed them. They're not really aggressive when looking for food. They take the "look how cute I am" approach.
After about 5 hours on the bus we made it to Milford Sound. What's in Milford.........well not a whole lot. Just a couple hotels and a boat dock. From here we transferred from the bus to one of the boats so that we could explore the Sound a little bit closer.
A look out at Milford Sound. Milford actually is not a Sound (an ocean inlet formed by a river). It is actually a proper fjord (a glacier carved valley that has been flooded by ocean).
As we headed out the weather was not looking too nice. There was a lot of low lying cloud.
It didn't take long for the clouds to clear off and the sun to come out. I had hopes that with the sun would come some wildlife.
Looking back at Milford Sound. The boat I was on goes a little bit farther into the sea than the other boats but mostly we got to see the beauty of the Sound itself.
There are some seals. I'm told these seals are not actually part of a colony but have recently been weaned. Not really sure what their next step is but I guess at some point they'll re-join a colony.
Looking up at some of the sea cliffs. They are said to amongst some of the highest vertical seas cliffs in the world.
One of the waterfalls the boat gets nice and close to. Yes, all those people down there taking pictures are getting wet and in a few seconds they will be almost underneath that waterfall. I liked the view from a little bit farther away.
A look at some of the mountains that line the Sound. I'm told they are the fastest growing mountains in the world.
The sun may have been out but it was still a little bit cold on this 2 hour boat cruise. Very happy I bought my touque.
The clouds starting to come back in as we were heading back to port.
I may be mistaken but I think this is a picture of Mitre's Peak. It is about 1400 metres (4593 feet) tall. The water it ends at is about 200 metres (656 feet) deep.
Once the boat cruise was over it, we were all quickly herded back onto the bus and we made our way back to Queenstown. We took a slightly different (mostly they mean quicker and less scenic) section of highway back to Te Anau (to stop for fuel and stuff like that) and then it was straight through to Queenstown.
A very long day to say the least but so beautiful. Certainly a day trip not to be missed if you ever visit New Zealand.
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