Sound as a pound

One of our expected highlights of NZ was Milford Sound. It didn't disappoint despite the crowds of people... and sandflies. The latter finally caught up with us and pestered us (well, Angie) incessantly while we were trying to eat our picnic overlooking the splendour of the Sound. Grrrr.

Eglinton Valley

We stayed in Te Anau, a two hour drive from Milford. When we arrived at our hostel it actually turned out to be part of a massive holiday park complex. The Backpackers section had teeny tiny double rooms - they were built as singles obviously and they'd squeezed a narrow double bed between the wall and the door. After we had attempted to settle in, I (Darren) noticed that the window didn't shut properly and we only had a single duvet. I sent Angie off to reception to complain (I have been training her to build up her complaining, haggling and bartering skills). She came back with what can only be described as a total result. We had been upgraded to a fairly plush motel room - back of the net! We moved to the new luxurious accomodation (which came complete with our own TV and kettle) and sipped wine on the veranda watching the sun go down!

Hanging Valley

The next day we drove to Milford Sound and the scenery was pretty much as perfect as we could have asked for - and very varied too. We started off in undulating countryside driving alongside lakes with mountains in the distance, then through wide flat valleys with towering mountains, and finally along deep alpine valleys with jagged white peaks dominating the skiy line. Near the end of the drive we passed through the 1.2km Homer tunnel. It was started in the 1930s to provide labour during the depression but wasn't finished until the 1950s. It is still rough hewn and water pours through the rock ceiling to the pot holes below. There is no lighting inside and it is a single track road so the traffic lights at either end are only on green once every 15 minutes. The men who built it, and their families who came with them, lived in a camp at the entrance to the tunnel that didn't receive any direct sunlight for 6 months of the year, and was 2 days from the nearest shop. All this so tourists could reach Milford Sound with relative ease. We were very grateful!

Kea

Milford is apparently better in the rain or after a period of heavy rain, because the permanent waterfalls are fuller and temporary ones pour down from the almost vertical cliffs. Of course, the one place where it doesn't matter if it rains, we had a perfect day. But we both agreed that we were happy to swap impromtu waterfalls for sunshine and blue skies. It rains 1 day in 3 in this area and they can have the annual rainfall of the UK in one night. We felt very lucky.

After walking along the shore and ogling at the text-book views that are on offer we made our way to the harbour to board a boat. Our 1.5 hour cruise took us up one side of the Sound, out to the Tasman sea, and back down the other side. It was very windy up on the top deck but the breath-taking scenery was worth it and we stuck it out (well, Angie did anyway). We even saw some seals lolling about on rocks, but we're rather blase about them now!

Lupin Ecstacy

Milford is actually a fjord rather than a sound - the difference being that a fjord is created by a glacier and a sound by a river. Milford has an exceptional underwater party going on - due to unique environmental circumstances (making the bottom dark, still and sediment free) deep sea conditions are created at the bottom of the Sound. This means that all types of interesting stuff lives there. We visited the 10m deep underwater observatory to have a good stare at it. The plants and animals live on trays that are attached outside the windows of the observatory like hanging baskets. We saw rare black coral that was 120 years old, funky tube anemone (spiky thing in photo), huge handbag-sized horse mussels, tubeworms that were spawning and making the water all milky - eeew, starfish and some camoflagued fishes. It was great and coming out into the late afternoon sunlight really made us appreciate the difference between the underwater world and the surface one. It is hard to believe they are in the same place.

Milford Sound 2

We didn't leave Milford until after most of the other tourists had departed so we got a glimpse of the calm tranquil side of its personality. Apparently the best way to see it is on an overnight cruise. Also, huge cruiseliners sometimes come into the sound early in the morning (it is 300m deep) which must be quite a sight.

Before we left Te Anau we visited a small bird park. There weren't many birds there but the ones that were, were mostly rescued (like Eric the Morepork - a type of owl - who had been kept in a canary cage for years and had forgotten how to fly) or endangered. We saw a Takahe which is an awkward top heavy bird around the size of a turkey with a large orange beak. There are less than 250 birds in existence so it makes them probably the rarest creature we've seen. They were thought to be extinct until a small colony was found in 1948.

Snow cave

We left Te Anau to retrace our steps northwards to Queenstown.

The classic shot

The road to Milford

Underwater Observatory