Milford Sound
Trip Start
Apr 24, 2007
1
25
68
Trip End
Jul 17, 2007
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Milford Sound,
New Zealand
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Whilst travelling we passed through glacial valleys, past snowy mountain peaks & deep lakes and through lush green rainforest; eventually arriving at Milford Sound at about 1pm.
Unfortunately, this was when the weather decided to turn unfriendly. What should have been a boat trip with glorious views turned into a 'voyage in the mist'. The one benefit of all the rain was that the many waterfalls that cascade down the mountains had plenty of ammunition.
Milford Sound is actually a fiord not a sound. A huge glacial scar, partially filled with sea water and surrounded by seemingly almost vertical mountain sides. The mountain sides are covered with rainforest that really shouldn't be able to grow at that angle and hang on!
Our plan was to return by airplane. The chance to see the fiords and mountain ranges from a different angle (and not suffer another 4.5 hours on the coach). This the weather also scuppered.
So instead we were reduced to returning by helicopter - ho well.
We rose up above the mountains but below the still precipitous cloud. Then we swept across snowy covered mountain peaks (just like that scene in LOTR), across deep valleys with rain forest and lakes. After 10 minutes in the air we'd left behind the cloud and rain. We even parked for a brief photo opportunity - on top of a mountain (it was slightly windy).
Then a short taxi ride back to Queenstown - which is where we are now. The next difficult task for today is which restaurant to try for dinner, there's rumoured to be over 100 places to eat here, although most of them do seem to have the same 4 things on the menu.
Have found better internet cafe now, so can populate some of the earlier entries with some photos now. (This is week 5 - we think, it's hard to keep track - and Shane has already taken 800+ photos!)
