Milford Sound

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Picked up at 7am this morning to make the drive to Milford sound. It was actually pretty good to be on the road at that time and watch the sun rise over the mountains. We made a few stops on the way, mainly Te Anau but otherwise headed straight to Milford. The road there is very scenic, as the moutains grow and there are lots of small waterfalls. We went through the hoover tunnel which is a hand dug tunnel through a moutain. It is bare rock on the inside with very little light - quite scary but good. Once through that the scenary is even more spectacular. It rains at least 300 days a year in Milford (it is located on the West Coast of South Island in the fiord region) and today was no different. It was pretty cloudy and misty but we still had fairly good views and the mist made everything seem more dramatic. We caught a ferry at Milford which took us out into the Sound. It was raining quite hard on land but after only 5 mins on the boat we were under clear sky. I really enjoyed the boat ride and it is one of the best things I have done here so far. It took about 90mins to travel out and back. It was a great way to view and appreciate the landscape. I had my iPod playing the sound track to Lord of the Rings. That might sound a bit cheesey but it was the perfect music to listen to while standing and staring out at the moutains. The ferry also went into one of the larger waterfalls creating a lot of spray as it was so windy which was fun.
We dove onto Tuatapere this evening. Just incase you haven't heard of this place, it used to be sausage capital of new Zealand. Needless to say we ate sausage but it was kind of disappointing. NZ do not make good sausages - they are all the same, bland, tesco value style things and Tuatapere was no different.

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Photos

Milford Sound (2)
Windy on board!

Comments

[Jen]

Sounds fab
Hey Rach, great to read all your blogs and see your pics. Sounds and looks amazing! Keep having a great time, Jen xx