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Published: December 8th 2013
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We are booked on an overnight cruise on the milford sound. Slightly worried about the weather as they are predicting storms and gale force winds tonight. Getting to Milford Sound from Queenstown is a bit of of a trek It's 50 km as the crow flies but unfortunately we're not crows! So for us it's a 300km drive there (and back again tomorrow). You can do this in a day with a 2 hour cruise can you believe - it's called a coach/cruise/coach! You can also replace one of the coach legs with a flight. But they don't offer any flying opportunities with the overnight stay so we decided to travel under our own steam.
One thing we hoped to do on the way there was to go to Te Anu glowworm caves to replace the ones we missed on north island that we missed when Ian was ill. To make sure we had plenty of time we set off at 8am. So it was a shame when we got to Te Anu at 11am to find that the only options to go to the caves were 9.15 in the morning or 4pm or later in the evening!! Assume they
Mirror lake
More like a puddle don't glow in the middle of the day. As we had to check in at 4pm there was no way we could do it and now meant we had 5 hours to do a two hour trip from Te Anu. Lesson to self, read the detail.
So we had a leisurely drive ahead of us. Which wasn't too onerous as the journey between Te Anu and the sound is quite beautiful. There are also quite a lot of trails around this area but we decided to avoid any long walks as the sandfllies were a bit persistent to say the least. I saw in the guide books that there is a Maori legend which says that the Fiordland was built by god but some other spirit decided that man would never leave it because it was so beautiful so introduced sandfllies to remind man of his mortality. So I wasn't far wrong yesterday! Even captain cook wasn't a fan!
Some of our stops included Mackey falls and a place called Mirror Lakes. Ian was seriously unimpressed with mirror lakes (or Mirror Ponds as he called them). The reflection element wasn't helped by a couple of local scaups (
It was chilly
Snow still on the ground ducks to you and me) that kept diving to feed, leaving constant ripples. I got a decent couple of photos for my blog so not sure what his beef was!
As we got closer to the sound the scenery became more mountainous as we started to see the snow capped peaks and the waterfalls over the mountains. You finally go through a tunnel called the homer tunnel and start to head down to Milford Sound.
Once we got to the car park we checked in and waited to board our boat. Suddenly the check in assistant said " did you feel that, we just had an earthquake". There had been a 4.8 quake 15 kms away! And we didn't feel a thing but they did come and check the floor for cracks in the tiles.
We boarded the boat with the obligatory photo opportunity and headed to the saloon for the safety briefing. It was here that the skipper said that we were expecting heavy winds and so instead of anchoring in the bay for the night as planned, we may need to come back to harbour. Shame. However we still planned to stop over in the
bay to do the water activities.
The boat was very comfortable, about 45 of us with double ensuite rooms. It was pretty grey but dry as we left harbour for our cruise up the sound. What is really hard to get your head around is the scale of the cliffs. We passed one waterfall and he asked us to guess how tall it was. Highest estimate was 200 feet. Actually It was 155m high and apparently 3 times higher than niagra falls!This is the Stirling falls, one of of the few permanent waterfalls in the area. Most of the waterfalls are temporary and only exist for a few days maximum. But when it rains, the sound fills with hundreds of temporary waterfalls. They mentioned that the expected rain would be good as it had been dry for a while and so any rain we got that night would be a benefit. In fact, the area has the second highest rainfall in the world with an annual rainfall of 7-8 METRES per year.
Cruise was really interesting, lots of facts well explained, the boat took you close into the waterfalls (in some cases with the water falling on to
Lunch
Same as always but still eating. Inside because of the sandflies., oh and the rain the boat!) to show you the power and the height. We saw seals and some saw penguins! They also explained tree earthquakes where whole parts of the covering of the mountain fall into the sea. This is because only 20% of the trees and shrubs are anchored onto the rocks. So in a storm, if one starts to come down it will bring lots more with it. You can see these avenues of granite running down the mountains.
After about an hour we anchored into Harrison cove, our theoretical base for the evening and out came the kayaks and the tenders so we could get up close and personal. I opted for the tender, Ian went for the kayaks. As we started the heavens opened but still great fun! In the cove the depth of water was 320m so glad I didn't drop the camera in! Also glad I didn't do the kayaking, just had an irritating Asian woman who was scared of getting wet on our tender. Really annoying.
Hot showers required and then it was time for dinner. In true cruise style it was designated seating and we sat with a lovely young couple from Frankfurt.
I always feel so guilty in these circumstances. They chatted to us in English. For him, it was definitely a struggle but we would have been totally incapable of returning the favour. Food Quality was really good. At the end of dinner they played a short film of some of the really sunny and some really nasty days on the sounds. Skipper made the decision to go back in for the night but realistically it didn't make much difference as by then we were all ready for an early night. However before bed wwere subjected to an adhoc piano recital performed by the son of the Asian woman, who was a true tiger mum and who kept making him play!
She thought he was good which he was in a Les Dawson way but without the humour. Shut up!
Breakfast was at 7! So more cruising to come.
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