Milford Sound
Trip Start
Jul 31, 2005
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28
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Trip End
Feb 18, 2007
Milford Sound, New Zealand
Thursday, January 26, 2006
The usual tourist thing to do in Milford Sound is to take a cruise around the beautiful fiord. But no! That's not good enough for hyper-active Marc, who talks Patricia into doing a half day kayak around the fiord, followed by a half day hike on the Milford Track.
We start the day early, 6am to be precise. This is to enable us to get out on the fiord before all those wretched cruise ships start their day tours. It was a good idea too, as we had the fiord to ourselves, and the peaceful ambience of the place, made it seem all that more special.
Milford Sound is the 5th wettest place on earth, and we were advised by the guide book and told by almost everyone else around, to just accept that it will be raining
01 Setting out from the harbour, Milford Sound
. So we think we were pretty jammy to arrive and see it under a cloudless sky.It really is very scenic around here, with the snow capped mountains shooting straight up from the sea. We also saw evidence of an avalanche. Not, not a snow avalanche, this is New Zealand remember, and here they go one better and have tree avalanches. The trees on the sides of these steep mountains grow with interlocked roots, so if the first tree falls, they all come tumbling down, leaving a thick line of bare rock and a pile of trees at the bottom.
In the afternoon, we begin our trek of the Milford Sound Track from Sandfly point. It is described in the Lonely Planet as being the finest walk in the world. We think that the LP writer must have had a lot of time on his/her hands, to get around all the world's walks to be able to say that, but we can't deny that there is definitely something special about it.
They restrict the track to just 80 walkers per day, and you normally have to book months in advance. The Kayak company which we are with, has special dispensation to let it's customers paddle over to the start of the track, and then walk part of it, so we feel quite privileged to be walking here.
It certainly was a great walk, accompanied by amazing scenery, and interesting plants and fauna which are unique to this part of the world.
All in all, it was a fantastic day.
