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Published: October 30th 2008
Polly:
At the start of our trip, in the Bay of Islands, we met a French couple who were travelling round NZ in a campervan with their 6- and 8-year-old daughters. We then bumped in to them at the Superloo in Taupo a few weeks later. And again in Kaikoura! When we saw them the last time they invited us to their camper for a cuppa. Like us, they had found a month very short to explore both islands, particularly with the kids, so had decided to alter their itinerary. They had planned to visit Milford Sound and had a voucher for a boat cruise which they couldn’t use, so they kindly gave it to us. We thought we might have to put on our best French accents to become “Marie et Yvan”, but when we phoned “Milford Cruise” up to enquire, they just changed the names.
Some of the locals advised us that we should drive down in the afternoon/evening, stay the night, then go out on the early boat. All the organised day trips leave Queenstown early in the morning, arriving at lunch-time, turning Milford Sound into a bustle of coaches & cameras by 1pm. We took
their advice and left Queenstown after lunch.
I was still pretty weird & wired after the Canyon Swing, so Ross drove 4 hours south with a tea & biscuit stop half-way at Te Anau. The further South we got, the more remote things got. The road was winding up and down and the weather was bleak. We crossed the mountain range at the lowest possible point via the Homer Tunnel. It was sleeting heavily at the pass, and snowing at the top of the mountains. There were a few viewpoints recommended along the way, but as the weather and visibility was poor, we gave these a miss.
We arrived at Milford Sound before dark, and were both surprised at how tiny it was. I had expected a small town, and at least a hotel or two. Instead there was just a small dock, from where the boat trips depart, a car park & a café. We made a bee-line for the café and had the best fish (locally-caught fresh blue cod) and chips ever. A man from Taupo had told us that the further south you get, the better the blue cod tastes, and he wasn’t wrong.
More water falls...
The high rainfall results in hundreds of waterfalls off the steep surrounding mountains. This one ends up in Milford Sound via the Cleddau River.The rain pounded down all night and practically flooded the car park where we slept. But when we woke up, the clouds were clearing and there were blue skies. Once again the weatherman had been wrong and we‘d been really lucky!
Ross:
Our tour to Milford Sound and the freebie boat trip was well worth it. We had previously considered sacking off the jaunt because it's really out of the way but we're so glad we didn't. Our luck with the weather meant that we got the most spectacular views of the fiord, named after Milford Haven, the home of it's Welsh discoverer, John Grono, and described by Rudyard Kipling as the eighth wonder of the world (don't you know!). Milford Sound was voted by Kiwis as the number one 'must-do' activity in New Zealand. The pictures kind of speak for themselves.
Mitre Peak is the highest peak within Milford Sound and rises directly from sea level to a little over a mile high.
FACT OF THE DAY: Milford Sound isn't actually a sound, it's a fiord (and no, you can't hear it either...) Sounds are created by rising sea levels flooding existing river valleys.
Fiords are created solely by glacier action, usually where a glacier has advanced to the coast then receded.
The drive back was a lot more enjoyable too, what with the brighter weather and clearer skies. We called in at the Mirror Lakes for lunch on the way back but ripples caused by a light wind meant that they weren't quite so mirror-like.
After skirting around Queenstown, we took the shorter and more scenic Crown Range Road, past Cardrona and Snow Park skie fields to get to our next destination, Wanaka.
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