Milford Sound

Yay!!!! Today is the day we go to Milford Sound!!! I was really excited to see this place, mainly because I have heard it is so beautiful and stunning. Well, the drive there was really pretty with all of the mountains and waterfalls coming down them. It is interesting how different the mountains are around here. Some are just sheer rock and others are covered with dark green trees or lighter green trees, depending on the elevation of the side of the mountain. One of the interesting stops we made was at Monkey Creek, we stopped to take pictures but encountered about 15 Kaka birds. These medium size birds are so damn cheeky!!! They got on top of the car, started to try and pull out the rubber between the doors, bit the antennae and of course were looking for food. They are about the size of a seagull but have a long top beak and are brown with green, blue and orange under feathers. These little guys were so funny! (Check out the video when I post it!) We then headed to the where the Homer Tunnel starts, and we had a red light (because they only let traffic go one way at a time during the day) so we hopped out for the 5 minute countdown that we had and took a few pics. This tunnel inside was creepy! Not like any tunnel in Boston, that is for sure! This thing looks like it was still the same as when they created it back in the 1900’s! The very beginning had an archway of stones and so forth, but once you got in a bit it just looked like chiseled rock and that was it. Every here and there they had either plexi glass or some other material curving to the top to stop the water that came through the rocks from the melting snow somewhere far above. The tunnel is only 1.2km so it wasn’t too far through the mountain, but it was still very dark, noisy and a bit cold. We came out on the other end into a beautiful open expanse of some more rocky mountains, where the road curved like an old winding road made by horses or cows, which my guess is how it was made.

The grade down into the valley where the fiord is was pretty steep and due to the hairpin curves the speed limit was extremely slow. We finally made our way into Milford Sound and it was AMAZING! We didn’t have too much time before our 11:15 cruise but we walked around a bit to take in some closer views. Around 11:05 we boarded onto our boat and got to the top where we would be able to see everything we wanted to. I was so dam excited to take some really nice pictures that I can print out. My first jaw dropping thing I saw other than the whole place was this magnificent big waterfall. It is called Bowen Falls and it is located right as you start to depart out of the Milford Sound port.

We headed into the narrowest part of the sound which they said was 400 meters wide, and the farthest depth in the sound was 300 meters. This place is amazing and magnificent and beautiful and jaw dropping. Anything you can think of to describe natural beauty. The water was blue and sea green in places, the wind blew intensely which sent goosebumps over your body, fur seals basked in the sun on the nice warm rocks until they went hunting for food later. The only sound that disturbed the peace were small planes and helicopters taking off, other than that it was perfect! On the cruise, we passed another large waterfall named Sterling Falls (which a guy named after himself.) and it is the tallest one they have in Milford Sound (about the size of a 50 story building). After the cruise we found a picnic table and spent 30 min or so chatting and eating lunch. We headed over to the Milford Foreshore walk, which gave you amazing views of Bowen Falls and Mitre Peak. I could have spent the day sitting on the rocks doing nothing, but the wind was a bit too much and the tide was coming in. We finished up the afternoon by heading back and stopping at a Chasm which was beautiful, it had a huge waterfall that ran through it and had all of these little holes in the rocks. The sign said the holes are made from small rocks that come down the river and swirl around and around cutting into the rock wearing it down. It was absolutely beautiful and I haven’t seen it before in a chasm. Most of the chasms I have seen are just huge spaces between rocks and that is it lol. Before we hit the campsite we stopped to take in a larger view of Gunn lake which was a beautiful blue green encased by green mountains on all sides. I could vacation here any time and never get sick of the tranquility or peacefulness.

We got back to the camp and are just going to chill tonight before we get up early tomorrow and I bring them to the beginning of their 8 day hike and I head to Queenstown. Even though it is semi risky picking up people who are hitchhiking, here it is mainly young people who don’t have a lot of money to do the kind of travelling I am and if I can help them make it to their destination and make new friends in the process then cool! It has even given me good company for the past 3 days which is nice.

Until I can update my blog again…..XO

Noodle