Milford Sound Visit

Monday March 4 started early for us.  We had a cab ordered by Real Journeys (the tour company) pick us up at 7:00 a.m. to take us to the bus that was leaving for Milford Sound at 7:15 a.m.  Real Journeys is a family business founded in Fiordland in the 1950s.  Its purpose is to provide incredible experiences to those that visit Fiordland and to conserve its natural beauty for the generations to come.

Our bus driver, Angela, had taken the wrong bus so we were delayed about 20 minutes when she went to get the correct bus. We made a few pick ups and then were on the way to Milford Sound. We travelled 600 kilometres (there and back) and returned to Queenstown at 8:15 p.m.  What an amazing day!

Bus ride heading west on a part of Lake Wakatipu we hadn't seen yet

Another view

Morning shadows on the mountains

We passed by Kingston, a small town at one end of the Lake.

Kingston

Grasses and mountains

One of the Remarkables

Our bus driver, Angela, gave a running commentary on the way to Milford Sound, pointing out small towns and natural features. We have found that all our bus drivers provide commentary and often their personal opinions.  For example, Angela might mention a town, say she had been there twice and that it was once too many times!  Lots of fun.  Kiwis are very straight forward people and tell it like it is.  Very refreshing.   We made a couple of stops along the way for "photo opportunities."  We had a 30 minute stop in Te Anau, a pretty town located on the second largest lake in New Zealand--Lake Te Anau.   Te Anau is the Gateway to Fiordland, being the closest town to Milford Sound, a scenic 2.5 hour drive away.  

Lake Te Anau-- pretty choppy waters

Another photo op--- beautiful Eglinton Valley

Angela in the front of our bus-- we had stopped for photos

Photo op for us en route to Milford Sound

Beautiful mountains

We passed some waterways--- the colour of NZ glacial waters is often a beautiful turquoise blue.

Monkey Creek

Beautiful colour

Snow and ice on the top

Getting cloudy--- the Southern Alps are majestic

Just before the Milford Road begins its descent through the Cleddau Valley into Milford Sound, it passes through the Homer Tunnel, a 1.2 km-long tunnel through solid rock.  Before the tunnel opened in 1954 after 19 years of construction, there was no road access to Milford Sound.   What a feat--- it is still a dimly lit narrow tunnel with solid rock walls.

View in our bus going through the tunnel

Angela pointed out that once we were through the tunnel we were in another weather zone and officially on the west coast of NZ.

Fiordland National Park, which was established in 1952, is now over 1.2 million hectares in size. The Park is known for the glacier carved fiords of Doubtful and Milford Sounds.  In 1990, Milford Sound, along with the rest of Fiordland was listed as a UN World Heritage site and given the name Te Wahipouamu "the place of greenstone", after the area's most treasured mineral resource.

We arrived at Milford Sound and boarded our boat at around 1:30 p.m.  It was cloudy, but not too cold (around 18C) and there was no rain.   We were told that there are usually more than 200 days of rain at Milford Sound.  There had been no rain for the last 10 days, which is almost considered a drought in the area.

Milford Mariner--- built in 2000

We had a naturalist on the tour who pointed out the permanent waterfalls, the wildlife and answered questions.  Our cruise lasted 2.5 hours and we sailed to the mouth of the Tasman Sea.  We were lucky that it was not raining and that we could spend most of the time out on the deck taking in the beauty of the area.  While there were a lot of tourists at the docking area-- once we were on the water, we did not see too many other boats.

Our guide pointed out that Milford Sound is actually a fiord, not a sound.  It was carved by glaciers during the ice ages.  Rudyard Kipling visited in the 1890s and described it as the "eighth wonder of the world."

Milford Sound was discovered by Māori people more than 1000 years ago.  Tribes would travel there to fish and hunt around the fiord and to collect precious pounamu (greenstone).  The Māori name for Milford Sound is Piopiotahi, which means a single piopio (a long extinct native bird).  Early European settlers did not explore Milford Sound by boat, as it was well hidden.  Captain Cook managed to miss the entrance to the fiord twice!

In 1823, a sealer, John Grono was the first European settler to visit.  He named it Milford Sound after Milford Haven, a long narrow inlet on the Welsh coast.  In the late 1900s, a Scotsman called Donald Sutherland became Milford Sound's first permanent resident. He died in 1919.

The majestic towering Mitre Peak

The waterfalls are magnificent (when it rains, there are more)

Travelling through the fiord

Another waterfall

Entrance to the Tasman Sea

Heading back

Large fur seal sleeping

Up close

We went very close to Bowen Falls, a majestic 161 m waterfall, the tallest and most powerful in Milford Sound.

From afar

Very close-- the spray is supposed to make one younger 

Incredible power

More views

Another large waterfall

One last look

The cruise ended at 3:45 p.m. and we took the bus back to Queenstown.  Angela did not give us too much commentary on the return trip and we only made one short stop in Te Anau.  As we neared Queenstown, Angela pointed out a number of deer farms which have become a big industry in recent years.  Lots of venison is found on the menus in NZ.

Large deer farms not to far from Queenstown

Driving through the beautiful countryside on our return 

We arrived back at the Real Journeys offices at 8:15 p.m.  A cab took us to our Airbnb where we had a late fish dinner and finished our bottle of Misha's Pinot Noir.  We are very glad that we made the journey to Milford Sound.  It is a beautiful part of the world to visit. The pictures cannot do it justice-- one must experience the majesty and the serenity of Milford Sound in person.