Mirror Lakes and Waterfalls
Trip Start
Jul 24, 2007
1
39
50
Trip End
Nov 11, 2007
Milford Sound,
New Zealand
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Travelled from Te Anau down to Milford Sound today - it was a really, really beautiful journey and probably my favourite scenic journey so far! The Road from Te Anau to Milford is Highway 94 or its better known as the Milford Road - Its rated amongst the top 10 most dangerous roads to drive on in the world because the weather conditions can change really really quickly, visibility can drop so you literally can't see your hand in front of your face and avalanches from the huge surrounding mountains are pretty common added to that the road sits on a major fault line and Milford Sound itself is where the earth quake last week came from - the road only reopened fully yesterday as they have been busy clearing away the land slide debris from the earthquake!! Anyway aside from the obvious dangers and obstacles of actually getting to Milford thousands of people come here just to admire the beauty of the area and they aren't disappointed
Eglington Valley
!As usual the weather was all over the place and there was some pretty low cloud at times which meant the tops of the mountains weren't visible which isn't too bad but when the clouds do clear you realise just what you are surrounded by!
We stopped at a place called the Mirror Lakes which usually when there is no wind you get some awesome pictures of the mountains reflected in the lakes which are made up from glacial waters (hence why they are crystal clear) - today it was windy but some of the pictures came out okay.
Then we went to a place called The Chasm where the power of the waterfall which runs through there has carved what looks like a skeletal face out of the rocks where it falls - it looks pretty groovy but we turned up the same time as a caoch full of old americans who all had umbrellas which they desperately tried to poke everyone with - arrrgh and it wasn't even wet becuase you walk through any area of rain forest and the canopy that creates means not much rain gets through! I hate Umbrellas why can't they buy coats with hoods on them none of them could hold their umbrellas and take pictures anyway so they had to put them on the ground
Mirror Lakes
!The drive down the dodgy bit of the road was cool - our driver has done the drive for the last two years and knew pretty much what to do i.e. drive slow and steady and don't stop. The Fiordland National Park actually employ a team who live up in the top of the mountains and they monitor the areas which are prone to avalanche - if they look like they might go they close the road, fly up in a helicopter and throw some explosives in to bring it down safely - hows that for a cool job!
Check this link below (might have to cut and paste) an avalanche hit a tourist bus at the beginning of August -luckily it was only a small one!) www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ru6CzxJS4Q0
So we made it through without any rocks or snow hitting the bus and down to th ferry terminal at Milford - We had a two hour cruise right through milford sound which was amazing (they also fed us for free which was even better!!) the sound is amazing although it was raining but it rains pretty much all the time here - they have an average of 6m of rain per year but sometimes it can be as much as 13m per year. But if it doesn't rain there aren't as many waterfalls and there was loads - most of them are much bigger than Niagara but don't the volume of water niagara does
Mirror Lakes
. Mitre Peak is also here which is the tallest mountain in the world which comes straight from the sea. There are 13 other sounds or Fiords but none of them are as accessible as Milford and none of them attract the same amount of wildlife above and below water as milford becuase of its depth - we saw fur seals and penguins there are sometimes dolphins too but they didn't appear today!So after a great time here I'm staying another 3 days - thought it was a good decision until I arrived at the hostel and there is a huge sign saying that the Department of Conservation are warning that heavy rain is due and may cause avalanches and are advising people not to do remote walks or to venture anywhere where they cannot be evacuated - they are also saying that there will be more earthquakes and aftershocks they just don't know when - so keep your fingers crossed that its not wednesday of next week cos thats when I head out of here and I need to get back to Queenstown!!!
