Finally made it to Milford!

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Friday 15th September 2006
I finally got to go to Milford Sound. The weather wasn’t great (overcast and drizzle), but that just increases the number of waterfalls, although it would have been nice to see the tops of the mountains! Word of warning for anyone else going - bring insect repellent - lots of biting sand flies! I read an interesting fact - only the adult females are blood suckers… Hmmmmm. Another interesting fact - if you see one on your arm, pull the skin tight and it traps their mouth piece in - they can’t get out, but keep taking in blood, until they explode!

The boat trip into the Sound (it is actually a fjord not a sound - glacier made) was pretty amazing - the photos don’t do it justice. The scale is enormous - huge waterfalls and steep sided rock, with vegetation clinging on all the way up the sides.

We stopped off at the underwater observatory on the way back. I found it really interesting! You climb down a few meters to the underwater viewing area. Because of the water being so cloudy the amount of light that penetrates means corals and fish that normally grow at much lower depths are on platforms suspended outside the glass viewing windows. I spoke to the guide about diving and he showed us and talked about some really unusual fish and coral. When there are not tourists there, the platforms are lowered down to more natural depths - the fish swim up and down with the platforms.

When we got back to the campervan it was getting late so we drove back to Te Anau. The drive to and from Milford Sound takes you through some very scenic valleys and though road tunnels into snowy valleys. No wonder it gets closed so often in the winter by avalanches!

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Photos

See the scale of the waterfall and mountains!
There is a huge boat at the base of that waterfall (click on the photo for a larger version)