Blogs from Milford Sound, Fiordland National Park, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 9

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Milford Sound Coach and Nature Cruise Well I just had to see it. Milford Sound so I booked a coach and cruise. It was much better than your large tourist buses. Its a small van with only 8 of us. The driver stops at a number of different scenic sites along the way and there are 3 short hikes. The drive to Milford is as impressive as the cruise. It has the magesty like Mt. Rainier. We drove from Lake Te Anau from the lake across grasslands and then entered the bush. The forest was old and had been protected since the 1800s. We stopped to drop of some local mail and food to a couple of homesteads (different). Then on to Mirror Lakes in the early morning. The lakes were in shadow but the surrounding ... read more


After a long and windy road we finally reached Milford Sound.... read more
Rakesh relaxing on his yacht
Mitre Peak
Waterfall


Once finished the track, we all took an overnight crusie. It's well worth taking the crusie, you see some amazing views that you wouldn't see on the walk. I recommend getting up early the next morning, you will definitely bring home some stunning photo's. Matt, Lu, Sam and Karl took the posh private cabin option. The average age on the boat 75! Nai, GD and Helm took the not so posh option and ditched the private cablin, which was fine it was only the three of us in the one cabin. The great thing about our boat, we had a Contiki tour on board. The average age on our boat 23! It was an awesome night , very loud and lots of fun. No photo evidence has been uploaded just landscape shots. More details on Milford ... read more
Morning landscape shots
Morning landscape shots
Morning landscape shots


Background Milford Sounds is one of the wettest places in the world. It gets over 6 metres of a rain a year! Some say it is one of the Seven Wonders of the World! The trek itself is an amazing experience; walking it with some six of your mates makes it even better! The walk itself is 53.5km, over four days Day One: Glade Wharf - Clinton Hut 5km Before starting the track you have a short ferry ride from Te Anu Downs. Once dropped off it is a cruising 5 km to Clinton Hut, the track is well looked after and relatively flat. There are a lot of day trips that run along this stretch of the track, so the track is wide and suitable for any level of fitness. Once you arrive at the ... read more
Amazing Scenery
Quiton Mackinnon's Memorial
River Scenery


After leaving the steep streets of Dunedin (apparently home to the steepest street in the world - which we couldn't find!), we headed further south to the, as yet, relatively unexplored coastal region of the Catlins. This area was 'awesome' (Simon's new favourite word) and seemed to have more seals and birds than tourists. After spending a couple of days exploring the beaches and wildlife of the Catlins we got back in the van and drove southwest towards Fiordland passing through tourist magnets such as Invercargill (New Zealand's equivalent of Slough) and Tuatapere, self titled "home of the sausage". Luckily time was against us, so we pressed on to lake Manapouri, a gateway town to the magnificant Milford and Doubtful Sounds (giant fiords). This area was just ridiculous in its sheer size and beauty and definitely ... read more
Smile please 2
But then he had enough ...
and so did she ...


My trip then continued on to the Sounds and I opted to go to the harder to reach Doubtful Sound and it was totally worthwhile. Kanaka (boyfriend from wellington) and I went on an overnight boat cruise which gave us the chance to see the stunning area with just a small group. Despite the pouring rain we went fishing (someone caught a shark!), pulled up lobster pots, played cards, ate crayfish and venison and bonded with the group over a few bottles of wine. The highlight for me was having a pod of dolphins perform acrobats alongside the boat and looking at the hundreds of waterfalls cascading around us. There was a wee stove in the boat that I snuggled up against for much of the trip as it reached freezing temperatures outside (this was in ... read more


We are currently exhausted as we have spent the whole day kayaking in Milford Sound. It was great fun and the sound (although technically it is a fiord) is beautiful. We were really lucky with the weather too and despite it being one of the wettest places in NZ (it gets 6m of rain a year) it did not rain once. We spent about 5 hours paddling about which was lovely. We followed the edge of the peaks for most of it and we were able to see seals. There are lots of boats in the sound and they created quite big wakes which were fun to kayak over. Milford Sound is lovely although it is a major tourist attraction. We arrived late afternoon yesterday so we avoided the crowds and were able to go for ... read more
Milford Sound


Today we planned to go to Milford Sound, which we had heard is this amazing beautiful place, even in the rain, which was lucky as it was raining, but still clear. So up nice and early for the 2-3 hours drive (120km). On the way we passed through Knobs Flat and some pretty scenery including undulating hill sides with pretty wild flowers and big cliffs with waterfalls and snow topped peaks. We arrived at Homer Tunnel which has only one lane running through the mountain, the traffic lights change every 15 minutes, and it is just literally carved in the rock. There are no lights in the tunnel and it was all down hill, very scary. We came out the other side to be faced with a steep drop and windy roads. This part was not ... read more
On the way to Milford sound
Cliff
More scenery


We rose early this morning to allow time for the 2-hour drive to Milford Sound. It was a nice morning drive - banks of fog alternated with sunny patches for a series of ever-changing views. Early on we crossed the 45 degree south latitude line - actually the first of two times we’ll cross it northbound on this trip. As we got up higher in the mountains, the fog lifted for a number of gorgeous views of the snowy mountain peaks towering overhead. We stopped just before the Milford Tunnel to take some pictures and encountered a small band of keas (mountain parrots). They are completely unafraid of humans and it took some fancy footwork from Ben to keep them from nibbling on his gym shoes! We enjoyed another stop at The Chasm, where the Cleddau ... read more
Sun triumphing over fog
A duel
A kea huffs and puffs


Four days, three nights, two inches of rain and one hellavu time. Rewind a few days back. Before Sydney. Before almost missing our international flight from Christchurch. Before the rain started. We should have listened. It all started when the Kiwi party bus picked us up in Glenrochy. It was Mark and I, four American guys, an English couple, an Aussie and an Israeli girl from royalty (supposedly she was traveling to toughen up her princess ways). So there we were in the bush, on the Routeburn Track, tramping 33 kilometers over three days through middle earth. Through dense Beech forest with glacial waterfalls, high alpine lakes and immense mountain valleys all converging at one point. We spent two nights in luxury bush accomodation, a backcountry hut stocked with flushing toilets, running water, gas cookers and ... read more
I'm on top of the world!
Routeburn money shot
Milford Sound




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