Milford Sound

Up at the crack of dawn! Showered and out by 7am I hit the road and drove up to Te Anua to get some fuel, the road to Milford Sound is one way in and out and is a round trip of about 240km (150miles) and with no petrol stations you don't want to get caught short, it's a long walk out! The drive was really good the road was quiet and I stopped on the way at 'The Mirror Lakes' which are small ponds at the side of the road which reflect the mountains across the valley, it would have been amazing but a SAGA coach turned up and 50 odd cackling British women got off making a right load of noise. A few quick pics and I left embarrassed by the their scant appreciation of the place. The road passed though a large wide flat grassed plateau an then continued up and over a pass and descended into a wooded valley before climbing up through thick cloud to the tunnel entrance. The road to Milford Sound was hewn through the mountain to enable direct access and is I think the only Fiord which has road access all the others are closed to tourists as nature reservations or only accessible by sea. The tunnel is one way and runs for a about a mile, it has a traffic light system but it only operates from 9am so I must have been up there too early they weren't switched on when I entered the tunnel. It has a couple of passing places in it but essentially if you met a coach going the other way you would be stuffed! The Tunnel pops out literally half way up a mountain on the other side and takes your breath away. The road switch-backs rapidly down the valley, sheer sides of granite rock on either side. Eventually you arrive at Milford which is essentially a tourist service centre and the port for the pleasure cruisers. I had booked ahead with a cruise company recommended by the Hostel and as I had an hour to spare I went into the cafe there for a coffee and sandwich which was a respectable 5 quid (unlike the UK which would have charged at least a tenner just for the privileged of walking in the door.) I walked around the small inlet at the head of the water to the 'Cruise Terminal', a small port for the boats which ply the sound. I checked in at the desk for the Mitre Cruises and waited for the boat to come in. The hostel had given me the number of this company and said it was the best one as they only deal with individual bookings and not the many coach parties that use the bigger boats. The boat only had about 40 people onboard and the Captain was the tour guide. The commentary was excellent and numerous, anyone braking the rules would be thrown overboard, therefore the Captain would be forced to pick you up, however he would charge you 'salvage fee' of double the trip cost before he allowed you back on! The boast sailed out into the sound the huge sides of the mountains either side towering above, a few clouds were about and a fair wind was up but the water was calm. The Sound isn't actually a Sound but a Fiord the difference is that a Sound is where a chasm in the rock is flooded and Fiord is where a glacial valley has been flooded but the sea. The fiords here were named before they actually knew what they were. The boat took us along the left side of the sound pointing out the different features of the mountains, and how they were formed. There are many beech trees clinging to the sides of the mountains and they manage to stay there by interlocking their roots and getting into tiny crevices, however every so often a 'tree avalanche' occurs and they literally fall like dominoes down the hill side leaving a huge scar down the mountain. All along the sheer faces there are water falls coming off the mountain sides dropping hundreds of feet into the water below. Because the rock simply drop straight down under the water the boat was able to sail right up to and under the waterfalls drenching everyone on the boat (he did warn us to put cameras away!).
We rounded a point on the side and there were some Seal basking on the rocks, these were the females along with the bull male, and were oblivious to the boat there. The water in the sound is unusual in that because of the amount of fresh water that comes off the mountains the top 7m or so has very low salt levels, this also stops the light from penetrating down into the water very far and so there is a unique sea life environment close to the surface. There is a platform you can get off at with an underwater observatory however it was another 40 quid so I gave it a miss. The boat went right up the sound and eventually we went out into the South Tasman Sea and the swell suddenly increased to about 2m. This was a calm day though and this part of the Sea is on the edge of 'The Roaring 40's' apparently one of the roughest sea's in the world. We turned back and headed into the sound, the captain pointing out the continental divide fault which runs through the region and a hanging glacial valley way above us which had been cut cleanly across by the Milford Sound glacier. On the way back in to the port we were joined by a school of bottle nosed dolphins who swam along side and in front of the boat. I managed to get a couple of 'just got-it' shots but most of them are simply lots of empty water. Back at the port I returned to the car and set off back to Te Anua. stopping just through the tunnel to take some pictures of the melting pack snow which was still here in the summer. Further down the road I stopped a rest stop and met a group of hikers who were trying to get back to Te Anua so I offered them a lift, they had hiked for 2 days over from Queenstown and were 4 hours early for the bus back but they could get an earlier one from Te Anua. By the time we got back to the town the warmth of the car had set in on their legs and they could hardly walk when I dropped them off at the i-Site. Back at the hostel I met up with Peter and Jane again and we chatted till about 10ish before turning in.