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Published: November 13th 2008
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We both woke up at 4am freezing cold even with two duvets on the bed. We put the heater on but didn‘t really get back to sleep until just before it was time to get up for the trip.
We met our small coach first thing in the morning, along with about ten other people and started our journey to Milford. The scenery was beautiful, with plenty of lake and snowy mountain vistas to keep the photographers happy (especially because every stop we were met by at least one Kea - friendly green parrots that seemed to be expecting coach trips of tourists with food). We had debated about doing the journey ourselves and meeting a cruise up there but until the 30th November we’d read that you need to hire snow chains for your car just in case the weather changes quickly. By the time we’d paid for them and the fuel it would have cost more to do it that way, plus on a coach it meant we could both enjoy the view.
We were told on the way that part of the road is prone to avalanches and rock falls. At one stop point we saw
some information boards with photos of the road completely swamped with snow and ice taken only a few years ago.
Mirror Lake was more productive than Lake Matheson and parts of the water really were completely still, reflecting a perfect image of the mountains in their dark surface.
Building work on the Homer Tunnel - a 1200m channel through a mountain, and one of the highest tunnels in the world - was started in the 1930s to make life easier for the residents of Milford Sound. It took twenty years to build due to the remote location, the primitive equipment available and a world war getting in the way. Up until that point the postman had to climb up a mountain shaped like a saddle (it was the lowest point in between other larger mountains) and hand the postbag to someone on the other side who’d climbed up to meet him on a rope ladder. I’m guessing they didn’t get deliveries every day.
The drive through the tunnel was long, dark and steep (over the length of the tunnel you drop by one tenth) and we were pleased to hear that only one way of traffic was
now allowed to travel through thanks to the installation of traffic lights - apparently before both lanes of traffic were allowed and passing wasn’t so easy in the narrow, dark tunnel.
We arrived at Milford Sound shortly after and boarded the cruise vessel for our trip through the fiord. We made our way out onto the top deck and wrapped up tight in coasts, fleeces, gloves and hats. Although the sun was shining it was bitter cold and out on the water we could see it was going to get windy.
After getting our shots of Mitre Peak, the most photographed mountain in NZ, we made our way downstairs to start on the bbq lunch buffet. Matt was disappointed as he said the sausages and burgers in NZ just don’t match up to their equivilent back home.
The next couple of hours were spent out on the deck taking hundreds of photos and looking at steep, cascading waterfalls (including going underneath one and getting drenched), fur seals laying on rocks and hunting for rare breeds of (non existent) penguin which the boat driver ‘claimed‘ to have seen as we went past some rocks.
The boat went
right out to the mouth of the Sounds, where they joined the Tasmen Sea, before heading back in again.
On the return journey we stopped at the Observatory aquarium and walked down a long spiral staircase that took us 10m below sea level. The Sounds are a mix of freshwater on top of salt water, and because the freshwater creates a dark layer on top, it allows the growth of marine life in the saltwater that would normally only live in much greater depths. From the thick Observatory windows we could walk around and see various types of coral that had been grown in trays around the edge. Many fish chose to live there, not because they were fed, but because they were drawn to the coral and also they liked watching the strange people on the other side of the glass (ie us!)
The black coral (which was actually white and looked a bit like a Christmas tree branch) on display was beautiful and had snake stars coiled around it‘s branches. There were also some tube anemone which had long tentacles used for feeding, plenty of wrasse and perch fish, sponge, red coral and feather star.
Afterwards we went back to shore, got in our coach and started on the long journey back to the campsite. There were no photo stops this time so a couple of hours later we were back at our van working through our long list of things to do that included making phonecalls, using the internet, researching Oz campervans, having a shower, cooking dinner and planning what to do over the next few days. It’s a hard life backpacking.
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