High Walls and Waterfalls

The Milford Route and Sound – 13th/14th December 2010

If you ever decide you want to hike (or as the NZ’ers say – tramp?!) the Milford Track; take into account that you need to book about 6 months in advance! We had hoped that this would be the way that we would visit Milford Sound but as the walk was a no go we chose to do the full on tourist thing and drove down the Milford Road to go on a scenic cruise! Whoop whoop!

It’s a 75 mile long road that takes you in and out of Milford Sound from Te Anau.  Considering how long the road took to build (for example - the Homer tunnel was started in the 1930’s and only completed in 1953!) and the fact that it doesn’t seem to have any other use than to bring tourists to the Sound – it’s a good job it’s still popular! Saying that, it is a pretty fantastic car journey and the many DOC campsites on the way were all situated in fabulous settings. I’ll stick a photo below because we got some great shots the evening we drove down. 


The Homer Tunnel you go through is also pretty awesome – the lights on it only change every 15 minutes and when they do, you dip into a completely dark tunnel that seems to be taking you underground rather than to the other side. The most similar experience is the tunnel you go through on a log flume ride before you go down the chute! Childish? Moi?! Never.

We went to Milford Sound expecting to be impressed and  we weren’t disappointed. It’s probably one of the best things we’ve done so far. Jon says it was because the sides of the Sound were so sheer and it was as impressive as the pictures you see in the guidebooks. I enjoyed it because I got to laze around on a sunny boat for 4 hours occasionally spotting the wildlife.

We picked a nature cruise rather than a scenic cruise but I’d guess there’s little difference between the two. However, we did have the bonus of a quick witted narrator who pointed out a few things on the way. At one point he was describing a base jump that took place off the high wall in the Sound.  The guy pointed out that if you jumped off the wall without a parachute you’d have over 10 seconds to consider what you’d done before you landed ‘gently caressing the water’. The other thing that made me laugh was that when we sailed out of the Sound (and I can say that because our boat had sails – for entirely aesthetic purposes only – but sails nonetheless!) our guide pointed out some buoys which mark crayfish storage pots underneath. The man explained how the crayfish lived inside of them before being shipped live overseas to somewhere like Japan. That way, he said,they could ensure that the crayfish arrived in the best condition, fresh and ready for a hot bath and a big night out in a fancy restaurant.

 

Did you know that Milford Sound was named after Milford Haven – the hometown of the Welsh whaler who first sailed down it? Not entirely sure they’re comparable…