Sunday - January 12, 2014 Milford Sound Fiords

SUNDAY – JANUARY 12, 2014

BOTTOM LINE:

Milford Sound cruise through Fiord land

BACK STORY:

Today we were off on an adventure that we had been waiting for.  We were going to the furthest southern point of New Zealand to visit the Fiorlands. We were picked up at 7:00 in front of our hostel and whisked away on a blustery, rainy day.  It would be a long drive but one that would promise a rare opportunity to see formations like none like we have every seen.

The weather prediction was right…rain and wind. Snug in our bus seats we took a nap and woke up at our first stop, Te Anau.  It was a “morning tea and pee” stop.  We grabbed a snack before reloading the bus.

While at the stop we picked up a number of people who had made the deep south loop with Kiwi Experience or had been hiking and camping and were rejoining the bus trip. The town of Te Anau is known as the walking capital of New Zealand because of all of the hiking tracks that are in the area.  Some trails require reservations to hike on and some of the reservations need to be made a year in advance!

The drive from that point on was not to be missed.  The town of Te Anau sits on the second largest lake in New Zealand…Lake Te Anau.  It is a lake formed by glaciers and has caves formed centuries ago by swirling water.  Being a glacier lake, it is very deep and measures about 600km around.

As we headed west we entered both the National Park and the World Heritage site for the Fiordlands of southern New Zealand. The World Heritage distinction has conservation significance.  The Grand Canyon and the Great Barrier Reef are other such sights.

At one point our drivers stopped at a trail head for us to take a 20-minute return walk to see a chasm.  Equipped with raincoats and umbrellas we hiked quickly along the wet path and found a BOOMING river being funneled into a chasm.  The pressure from the amount of water pouring over the rocks and into this narrow crevice took my breath away.  If anything fell into the water, it was toast!  The speed of the water was incredibly swift.

Chasm

Chasm

  

Before climbing back onto the bus the driver pointed out the Kio which is the most southern parrot in the world.  It is on the endangered species list having only 125 known in the wild! 

Southern most parrot

The rain had settled in fairly low so our views of mountain vistas were limited. The road from Te Anau to Milford Sound is 2 ½ hours with no stops and no fuel in between.  Just up the road traffic slowed to feed one lane of traffic through Homer Tunnel.  The tunnel was carved through the mountain rock and has a single lane dim lighting through it.

Homer Tunnel, NZ

 

  

Light at the end of the tunnel

Breaking through into the light of the other side we were speechless with the beauty.  The rains had sent forth a multitude of free form waterfalls.  With the mountains made of rock, there is little vegetation to hold the waters…so it finds the path of least resistance and just falls down the mountainsides in sheets.  It was impossible to even begin counting how many water falls were visible!

The area that we were driving through is referred to as the “roaring 40’s” because it is one of the few places in the southern hemisphere that has land and consequently rain.  The region doesn’t measure its annual rainfall in centimeters like the rest of the country.  It measures its rainfall in meters…averaging 8 meters of rain per year!!!  Milford Sounds says that they get the annual rainfall of London in 24 hours!!!

Rounding a bend we could see Milford Sound in the distance and the shadows of giant rock formations.  We were told that a fiord is glacier carved and has a “u” shaped look. A “sound” is carved by water or sea and has a “v” shape.  We were about to visit a fiord.

Our group boarded the Scenic Discoveries catamaran for our cruise. We were each issued a bag lunch and could chose where we wanted to sit.  The Captain welcomed each of us and went through the safety features of the boat as we backed away from the dock.

Ferries at Milford Sound

During our two hour cruise we enjoyed spectacular, stunning views of cascading waterfalls, unusual rock formations and fur seals.  We looped out of the sound and into the Tasmin Sea so that we cook see how Captain Cook passed by this area many times thinking that it was solid land and not an inlet.  The sound was formally discovered and claimed in 1820, so it is relatively new find!

Milford Sound Fiords

Waterfall

 

  

  

Fiords

Milford Sound

The lengthy drive back to Queenstown brought us back by 7:30pm. When we returned to the Hostel they had a private room for us to move into.  Yeah!  Our own bathroom!!!

A day well spent in astounding beauty.

New Zealand Fur Seals