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Published: July 28th 2009
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The first thing you will notice about this blog title is that I thought about it in the same train of thought that I thought of the Fox Glacier one. The second thing is the use of the world sound to mean good. I hasten to add, this is not part of my usual vocabulary, but it did seem appropriate in this instance.
I went from Queenstown to Milford Sound with a company known as Eco-Tours. Why don't you try and guess why I chose them above the myriad of other companies that run buses there. While you're thinking, I'll just ramble on about how while most companies leave Queenstown at 6.30am, Eco Tours leave at 8.30am. Anyway, welcome back thinkers, did you guess the reason yet?
The first couple of hours between Queenstown and Te Anau were rather dull, and I was rather tired. However, I did find it rather amusing that one of the mountains we passed was called Mt Cecil. For some bizarre reason, my brother likes to be called Cecil, so I guess this was his mountain. Anyhow, we made a brief stop in Te Anau, then continued along the Milford Road into the Fiordland
National Park. So called because... yup you guessed it, it is full of fiords. You see, Milford Sound is a bit of a misnomer, as it is actually a fiord. Any fool knows that it can't be a sound if it was formed by a glacier. Duh.
The road to Milford is rather scenic to say the least, and the bus was constantly stopping at various viewpoints. Personally I enjoyed the mirror lakes the most. There's something about water reflecting mountains that I find very appealing. Oh, and the view just as you come out of the Homer Tunnel on the Milford side is quite something aswell. I don't think I've ever heard a collective gasp for breath quite like it - well, apart from the time that Malvin Kamara actually did something useful during his time at Town.
This area gets its fair share of rainfall (5m per year) and after a downpour, the waterfalls coming down this valley are quite spectactular, or so I'm led to believe. Today, a crisp, dry, winters day, the waterfalls were frozen. Still, at least we could see the tops of the mountains, which you obviously can't if its bucketing down
with rain.
Arriving in Milford, I discovered that there was such thing as a free lunch. I hadn't paid for the lunch, and had brought sandwiches, but as I collected my pass for the boat, I was also given a large lunchbox. Not everyone got them, so I'm not quite sure what the deal was, but I was obviously not going to complain about it. Glad I didn't pay for it though, as it was rather meagre.
And so to the boat trip. We set sail (metaphorically, this wasn't actually a sailboat) into the fiord, and made a beeline to the other end, as they like to do the sightseeing on the way back when the wind is more agreeable. We came back down the fiord a lot slower, stopping to marvel at the mountains rising directly out of the water to tower above us, the cascading waterfalls (at least the unfrozen ones) and the group of friendly dolphins that popped up to say hello. Quite magnificent really.
Following the boat trip, the bus whisked us all the way back to Queenstown, putting on The World's Fastest Indian on the way. But you already knew that didn't
you?
Stewart
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Peter Johnson
non-member comment
Told you so
Glad you enjoyed your visit to the sound. I think I gve it a rave review. Not sure if I sent it. Weather conditions even mor espectacular day before but sunny on trip down . It really was a a wow moment. Have fun wherever you are now Peter