The sound of sounds
Trip Start
Aug 07, 2008
1
53
79
Trip End
Ongoing
Milford Sound,
South Island,
New Zealand
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
i need to start my entry by saying that i LOVE new zealand!
with that said, i will begin my entry. we left dunedin and headed into the small town of Te Anau. It was just a stop on our way into the Milford Sound area, but like all of NZ, it was a great stop indeed! there we did our grocery shopping for the day (beer, wine, beans, chips and cheese....we generally eat better than that, but we knew our accommodation for the night would be basic to say the least), got gas(since there is no gas station all the way to Milford) and booked ourselves onto a kayaking tour of the Milford Sound the next day.
then we headed out towards Milford Sound..... WOW. i am a woman of few words, so....WOW. the drive out there was amazing, to say the least. we couldn't have asked for a better day (well, it could have been a bit warmer)! the scenery here in NZ is constantly changing.....and the drive out to the Sound is no different. I kept singing "the hills are alive" the whole way there because it was so pretty, that even byoung didn't get annoyed at my singing! we saw hills, prairies, MOUNTAINS, tons of waterfalls, lakes, lots of sheep, deer, cows and clear skies the whole way there! i will try and let the pictures do the talking for me.
we ended up camping at Lake Gunn, which was the closest to Milford we could get without paying a lot of money. It was a basic campsite (just one porta potee) but it had a great view. Bright and early the next morning we took off for our Kayak trip at the Miford Sound.
beautiful, yes. sandflies, YES. I will loudly and proudly proclaim that i really hate sandflies! for those of you who don't know what sandflies are, let me try to explain, because i really hate them. basically, they are about the size of gnats..and similar to gnats, they come in hordes. a guy we talked to today said that the milford area was the capital for sandflies....but we've heard there are more elsewhere, so we will see. they also bite! the bites are not like normal bites but more like flea bites. they itch!!!! before we got onto our kayaks i was cursing under my breath and constantly swatting at my face, neck, feet, hands....pretty much anywhere on my body that wasn't covered in clothing. once we got on the kayaks and into the water, it was "ok". phew...with that off my chest, i will write about our kayak.
The Milford Sound is actually not a sound but a fiord...it was incorrectly named! Basically, a fiord is a valley formed by glaciers carving between rock over thousands of years, which are then filled with sea water as the ice melts and retreats. A "sound" on the other hand is an area of salt water created by a change in sea levels, and has absolutely nothing to do with glacial valleys. so to make up for their mistake, they also call the Milford Sound area the Fiordlands. =) Another random fact about this area is that they receive about 7 meters of rain each year and the depths of the water go anywhere from 100-300 meters deep. when i heard that, it actually gave me shivers!
Anywho, it was a great day! the kayaking was great fun with even greater scenery!! and it made it even better that they provided you with thermals, fleece, gloves, waterproof jackets...the whole bit!
off to queenstown we go!!!!!!
