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Published: June 27th 2011
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Mirror Lake
I couldn't see the mountains from this spot, but I caught this nice reflection Fortunately the dusting of snow from two nights ago on the mountain peaks wasn't added to last night. The road to Milford is a winding one through a mountain pass and along rivers. It can ice up and was closed the day before until 9:30AM. We checked in for weather conditions and to make sure we didn't have to rent chains to cross the pass. All systems were go, and we were off on a 2.5 hour drive to Milford Sound.
Our first stop along the way was a short hike along "Mirror Lakes" which were really more like ponds. They did live up to their names, as the mountains perfectly reflected in the ponds. Even when the mountains weren't in full view, you could look down to the ponds and see a clear reflection. The sign at the end of the walk was creatively right on the other side of the water with the words written upside down so that the reflection read "Mirror Lakes."
We had planned to stop at a hike before getting to Homer Tunnel but we didn't see any signs for a trailhead. Snow covered the ground around the tunnel, so we didn't look
too hard. Yes, I did say "Duh!" in the tunnel. The tunnel is oddly steep with a decent toward Milford. It seems that most longer tunnels (this one was about 1.4 kilometers long) are relatively flat. We were presented with some spectacular views of mountains with sheer cliffs as we drove into Milford. The glaciers that formed the region weren't shy about carving their way through.
A second brief stop was made at a trail called The Chasm. We were hoping to see the Kea, the only alpine parrot in the world. The large species of parrot is only found in the forested regions of the South Island. It is olive green with a brilliant orange under its winds. Immediately after we parked, we spotted one across the parking lot. It was hanging out by a tour bus. Sadly, a few of them have learned to associate tour busses and camper vans with food. We did get to see one, at least. The Chasm was a crazy display of water erosion. A river had craved a maze-like path down through the hard rock of the mountain side. In placed the flow nearly disappeared. The river dropped at least 300-400
The Chasm
No pictures could do this spiraling maze of a waterfall justice feet in very short order through The Chasm. There were two bridges from which to view the flow.
We got down to Milford and didn't have much time before we boarded the boat. The vessel's capacity was 120 and only 30 were aboard. Suzy and I went to the top deck which was cold enough to leave us wanting additional clothing, but not so cold to drive us below. The views were immediately amazing. The peaks surrounding the fiord (technically Milford Sound is a fiord as it was created by glacier movement as opposed to a sound which would have been carved by a river) shot up from the water's surface to heights of 2000 meters. The peaks had a nice dusting of snow. As quickly as the mountains rose from the water, they dropped beneath the surface. This allowed our large boat to literally get up to the cliffs and still be in water depths of 100-200 meters.
When we approached Fairy Falls, a pair of falls that plunge over 200 feet, the captain literally took the boat to about a foot away from the cliff's edge. This allowed the falls to cascade off of the bow
of the ship. As we advanced to the mouth of the sound and came into view of the Tasman Sea, a pod of dolphin swam to the boat to play in the wake. It was a large pod with several calf and cow pairs. They were breaching, playing, riding the waves and generally having a good time. Shortly after this encounter, we turned around and headed back into the fiord.
The return view was as dramatic as any. It is hard to imagine what the European explorers must have thought about this scene as they saw it 350 years ago. The sheerness of the cliffs and the color of the water was pure beauty. On our return we saw several fur seals sunning themselves on the rocks and the captain announced that he would be putting the bow of the boat under Sterling Falls. He warned that the port side of the boat would be getting wet. Theo immediately took this as an invitation for a shower and shook out of his two coats and ran for the bow. Fortunately he didn't get too wet. Sterling Falls is much more stunning than any other in Milford Sound. They drop
from 150 meters above with much more water flow than any other in the sound. For those keeping score at home, this is twice the height as Niagara Falls.
We had driven nearly an extra 15 hours to make it down to Fiordland. We just felt that we couldn't come to New Zealand and not see it. Fortunately, we were not let down and Lady Luck helped us with the weather.
On our way home, I pulled into an empty car park at The Chasm just to see if the Kea would appear. Immediately one descended from a nearby tree. He was quickly joined by another. They got on top of the van and were jousting a bit for position. They ended up getting into a squabble and were soon challenged by a third bird. We felt lucky to see three amazing parrots up close and personal but at the same time its really a shame that people have fed them to change their behavior so much. We also stopped at Mirror Lakes on the way back and got a better batch of pictures with the late afternoon light and a bit quieter water. We had some amazing
sunset views on the way home and stopped several times to admire and photograph them.
We have two days with a combined drive of about 9 hours to make our way to Christchurch for our flight to Cairns in northern Australia where we hope to be met by temperatures in the 70's.
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Lisa
non-member comment
WOW!
It seems like the scenery just keeps getting more and more beautiful. Sounds like you are having an awesome adventure!