Gail, Branches and broken glass
Trip Start
Jul 24, 2007
1
40
50
Trip End
Nov 11, 2007
Milford Sound,
New Zealand
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
The wind was pretty scary this morning and according to the Department of Conservation women that came into the lodge they recorded speed of up to 200km per hour which is pretty god damn strong!! I was supposed to be leaving today, meeting the Kiwi bus once everyone had done their cruise but because of the wind I didn't actually expect any buses to come down to Milford however when I rung the Kiwi office they said that everything was running according to schedule and that the kiwi bus would leave the harbour again at 3.55pm which was great because I really didn't want to stay here another night.
The guy at the hostel drove me down to the Harbour at 2.30pm just to make sure as the other driver had told me the bus usually leaves at 3.15pm and guess what! No bus - it left at 1.30pm. Now I can understand that the weather conditions were pretty dire (although by 2.30pm everything was fine again) but there is only one hostel, the harbour and a cafe in Milford so its not like I could have been a million places if the driver had actually bothered to come and look for me. So I was stuck at the harbour fortunately I was able to get a lift with a German guy back to Te Anau and then I managed to jump on a different tour companies bus - needless to say I told Kiwi what I thought and they refunded me all the money I had to pay out plus the Milford Sound part of my pass which was $155.
It wasn't the most comfortable journey though - a couple of buses and a few cars had their windows blown out by wind gusts coming down the mountains and they had eventually (albeit probably too late) decided to close the road so it was pretty much a race up huge hills to get out before the road was closed and we had to stay there another night - we made it though and once we had got out of the milford valley the wind was much calmer although snow was really low down on the mountains and on the road - made it look really great but it also meant that it was a pretty slow journey but at least it was safe
Kiwi's rave about Milford Sound and Kiwi Experience really push it hard to get everyone to do it and it is a beautiful place although it rains pretty much all the time there (they have an average of 6 metres of rain a year which is a lot) but there are so many beautiful places in New Zealand that don't costs so much to get to and aren't quite so weather dependent that I wouldn't say its one of the "must see places" and considering its not cheap to get there I wouldn't, if I knew what it was like before I went, have bothered actually going! However the journey to Milford is one of the most beautiful drives I've ever been on (or bus journeys rather) and I think that made it worthwhile for me.
Milford Sound
I have heard lots of annoyed backpackers moaning about how they wasted money going there but I am glad that I saw it and that I stayed there a few days because I got to see it on a good day when there was no rain which is quite a novelty.This morning, despite the howling winds and the pouring rain when I looked out of my newly smashed window there were about 15 waterfalls coming down the mountain opposite - I'm not the greatest fan of rain but I must admit it looked spectacular
