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Milford Sound
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I woke this morning and drove to the Milford Sound for the overnight cruise aboard the Milford Wanderer. The drive to Milford Sound takes four hours and fifteen minutes, and I left a little bit early from Queenstown to allow time to take in the scenery, as I read there is a lot to take in. Most people take a coach tour to the Milford Sound and very few actually drive due to the time it takes to get there. It rained off and on during the drive, but once I got north of Te Anua the views of Lake Te Anua and Mt Aspiring were beautiful. I pulled over dozens of times during the route exploring the many different campsites along the way to see which ones may be of interest and were the most beautiful.
The whole area or most of it at least is in the Fiordland National Park, a temperate rainforest with ancient beech forest, waterfalls, and glacier carved mountains. Some of the areas greatest walks begin in this area, the Routeburn, Milford, and Hollyford Track. The roadway to the Milford Sound opened in 1953 through the Homer tunnel, though access through Glenorchy on the northern side of Lake Wakitipu would have made a shorter Route. The Milford Road is beautiful and opportunity for picture taking, walking, hiking, and camping are abound left and right (with so much to look at, it makes it hard to drive).
I stop at as many locations as possible before arriving to the Milford Sound and boarded the Milford Wanderer around 4:15 for the overnight cruise. The sound was surprisingly sunny and not a drop of rain in the sky which fine by me (our guide tells us it rains two out of every three days here). The Milford Sound is a fiord carved out by glaciers millions of years ago and received on average 21 feet of rain a year (a very wet place indeed). I've heard the sound is even better when it's raining, but I'll take the sunshine for now. The drive out through the sound was beautiful and there were many waterfalls (glacier melt) along the way. We stopped in Anita bay, almost at the end of the sound, to do some swimming and kayaking (optional). I finally got to do some kayaking and though about swimming; the water did look refreshing even if cold. I did not kayak as long as I would have liked because I was afraid of damaging the camera. The guides advised against taking it but I didn't listen. You do get fed lunch, dessert, and breakfast aboard the Milford Wanderer. Dinner was served at about 7:30 and it roast beef, potatoes, and gravy (it was good). I went to bed a little early while the other passengers drank and played games.
The boat was heading back in to dock at one of the bays for the night before heading back out in the morning. The following morning we woke up and drove out to the Tasman sea before returning to port in Milford. We cruised by the over an area of the sound called the over-hang as the tops of the peaks really do hang over the sound. Our guided informed us two hikers were in the process of climbing Meter Peak this morning and had left at approximately 7:30 in the morning (Mitre Peak is a little over a mile high). We enjoyed a close encounter with one of the Sound's waterfalls (three times as high as Niagara Falls and enjoyed a little morning spray.). Left aligned photo tag:
We headed over to Harrison Cove which has an underwater viewing platform ( I wished would cove stopped and seen it) before heading back into shore.
The Milford sound was very beautiful and I am glad I got to see it, but I did find the experience a little over-rated just from my point of view (many people will gasp and shake their head at this one I'm sure). The area is filled with so many treasures it's just shame to see the Milford Sound drummed up to be the pinnacle of what lies with the fiords. The drive up to and around the Milford Sound is just as beautiful as the sound itself and I planned on exploring it a little on my drive back into Queenstown. The Milford road is a major drop-off and pick-up point for many of the great hikes in the area. Like the Milford, Routeburne, and Hollyford.
I ventured over to the Hollyford Track because I had heard you can walk a portion of some of the area great walks without having to book huts (cabins is what there are) through the Department of Conservation. I decided I at least wanted to see a little bit of it since I knew the track would be pretty booked this time of year which doesn't mean you can't hike it, it just means you can't stay in any of the huts. The Hollyford Waterfall was enormous and well worth the thirty minute walk to reach it. I drove back to the entrance point to Marion Lake and hiked twenty minutes up to the lookout point. It is a total of three hours hike round trip to Marion Lake but I wanted to have more water to drink with me so I passed on seeing Marion lake for now.
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