Milford Sound - What is a Sound?

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We set of very early from Te Anua to catch the early sailing on the "Sound" which was 120 kilometers away. The only traffic that we seen on the 90 minute journey was one police car going the other way and one poor soul who had a flat battery and waived us down to see if we had any jump leads. No luck sadly.

The route is said to be only suitable for confident drivers but was not a problem, some twisting mountainside parts but no worse that we had already encountered. The one notable feature however was the Homer tunnel which is a rough cut tunnel through the mountan that is single track and has a 15 minute interval traffic light.
The sailing on the "Sound" was a clear highlight of the trip to date. From the very start the silence and tranquility sets an earie effect. The walls of the mountains on either side reflect sound and give a mild echoing effect. Now the commentary throughout the journey was first class giving historical, geological and much other information about the sound. However if it was nentioned once then it was mentioned half a dozen times that it is not technically a Sound but a Fjiord. (mental note: google the difference) Either way it was spectacular with the tree lined mountansides and cascading waterfalls. Plenty of wildlife also with seal colonies and bird colonies. The trip sails right out to the open Tasman sea. We were very fortunate in that the previous days had been shrouded in cloud and raining.

We set off from Milford at around 11:30 with a 5 hour drive ahead to reach our next destination which was Wanake. However Shirley's research indicated that we should stop off at the Chasm and again at Mirror Lake. Both were very much worth the time spent detouring, with the Chasm being the highlight. As the name suggests it was waterfall that cascades under a bridge and into a deep chasm that has been carved out over thousands of years by the water. The boulders on each side being holowed out by the constant pounding.

The journey on to Wanaka was long and tiring but at every turn in the road the views were so special.

I'll get back to you about Wanaka later.

Seems he couldn't find the words!!!!

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Comments

[Charlotte]

I found that tunnel a little scary - we had to take snow chains when we went as it was winter and the roads were pretty bad couple with chances of avalanches! Worth it when you get there though! ........happy travels! x