Day 5 - Milford Sound (Fjord) Part 1

Lance reporting.

We woke up at Mossburn Country Campgrounds, which was right in the middle of a valley that was surrounded by some mountains, making me feel like we were in the southwestern part of Colorado, but with grass.  Large grassy valley with purple and pink flowers.

We drove north to Te Anau then kept on going to our Milford Sound cruise at 1 pm (2.5 hr drive from our campground).  We had a rough night with James the prior night so we were a little tired trying to get moving in the morning; however the scenery helped perk us up quite a bit. Maggie was even more excited since we were going to pass the mountain range that represented the Misty Mountains in the Hobbit movie. Nerd alert.

We passed a number of different climate zones on our way up to Milford- it switched between deciduous forests to temperate rainforests to evergreen forests to open valleys with rivers running through them and flowers popping up everywhere.  The rivers that run in the area are turquoise in color and just don’t look real.  Then once we got a little closer to Milford the last 45 minutes of the drive is surrounded by waterfalls on all sides.  It was truly beautiful, we didn't really know where to look to take in all of the wonderful aspects of the drive.  James did not cooperate so well, however.  He was a little fussy in the car and would wake up every time the car stopped.  Therefore Maggie wanted to get out a few times and I pretty much made her get out of a moving car and then kept driving back and forth until she could jump back in the moving vehicle.  The camera had to stay on action setting because she had to take pictures on the run to keep up with the car.

 

We took a 3 hr cruise through the sound with Real Journeys and it was worth every penny.  The Sound (which technically is a fjord, but the word wasn't known when Milford Sound was named), is gorgeous and provided great views everywhere.  A fjord is carved by a glacier and a sound is carved by a river. Milford Sound was carved by a glacier.  Our captain said that in general, glacier-carved valleys are U-shaped and river-carved valleys are V-shaped.

Just to give some perspective, that waterfall you see is Stirling Falls and it is 151 meters high.  That's 1 1/2 Statues of Liberty.  Now look at the vertical rock face right next to it...wow.

Peacefully sleeping....

...What did I miss?!

Camera?

            

I'M

COMING

for YOU.

AH-

CHOO!

The waterfall just blew away into mist.

We got to see some sea lions and fur seals during the cruise, which was great.  Maggie counted 22.

We had a bright and sunny day, which the captain acknowledged as about as good as it gets since the climate at Milford is actually a temperate rainforest and receives about 200 days of rain a year and is known as New Zealand’s wettest inhabited place.  James even enjoyed the scenery and the movement on the boat.  Of course he was the talk of the trip by others on board since he was being his adorable little self.  Our friends Ryan and Kelly were actually doing the Milford Sound track a couple days after we left, and it's one of NZ’s Great Walks.  It’s about 60 km over 3 days.  With James this just wouldn't be possible for us, but I’m jealous of the views that the track will provide being high up in the range around the Milford area.

During the cruise you go through the fjord out to the Tasman sea, which is a lot calmer than the fjord itself.  On the way back in they take you under the waterfalls and you get sprayed with mist.  The water was very cold!  James didn't know what the heck was going on.

After the cruise we headed back to the car, which was about a half km away.  When we got back to the car, Maggie was upset because she lost her new sunglasses that I had gotten her for Christmas.  I ran back to get them (so that we could do the drive back to Te Anau in the daylight and take in the scenery on the way back) and when I got there, no sunglasses were to be found.   I ran all the way back and went through James’ diaper bag, where I uncovered the glasses.  She was embarrassed, I was sweaty.

We decided to stop at a few of the sites on the way back as James was fussy and it didn't really matter.  The Homer Tunnel is the highest point of the drive 1270 meters.  It is not a lined tunnel so when you are driving through it you can see the bare rock glistening under the headlights.  There were no lights int he tunnel, only reflectors, so it was very eerie and you felt like quite the adventurer.  It is a single lane tunnel so only one direction can go through at a time.  There is a light system that tells you when you can go, and you can wait up to 15 minutes in line.  On our way back we were the only ones waiting in line so we turned the car off and got out to take pictures.  You can waiting in this rock gorge with waterfalls all around, so in the silence you hear nothing but raging water echoing off the sides.  It was very peaceful.

Stay tuned for part 2!