“Tragedy” at Milford Sound :)

Milford Sound

Today Gimpy and I are heading to Milford Sound as it is considered a must see part of New Zealand! We originally planned to drive ourselves up to Milford since the drive is suppose to be as beautiful if not more beautiful than the sound itself. Unfortunately, heavy rains in the area meant a highway closure for us. The repairs only allow for tour buses to go up in specific convoys. If we attempted to drive, the authorities would turn us back.  So, Gimpy and I did some scrambling last night to book a tour for today.

Old Friends!

The pickup point for our bus is in Te Anau and after finding free parking in the street, waited for our bus to arrive. Coincidentally, we found two friends travelling through New Zealand as well! They were with me at Physio’s wedding in Australia and then did a honey moon trip through New Zealand too. Gimpy and I kept tabs on them throughout their trip. Throughout our trip we ended up leap frogging each other on our way from the North to the South.  While we weren’t on the same bus we were headed to the same place, but to spot them while walking by their bus is quite fortuitous! 

Milford Sound Highway

Eventually, our bus arrives and we get on with the excitement for the journey ahead. It takes about two hours to drive up, and the scenery is pretty amazing from start to finish. It really reinforces the disappointment from not being able to drive it myself. Leaving Te Anau, you skirt Lake Te Anau before heading into the mountains. From there you experience beautiful mountain passes with views of amazing mountain ranges. The drive is amazingly gorgeous!

If I find myself in the same part of the world again. And have the opportunity to head to Milford Sound I will make it a point to drive myself next time and you should too. There are so many places you can stop, get out and really admire the scale and beauty of this place. Being on a bus limits your ability to do so.  Thankfully, we did stop at a few points of interest. (Though more would have been welcome!)

Eglinton Valley

Our first stop on the route is Eglinton Valley. This is a HUGE flat grassy valley that was once carved out by glaciers. Normally seeing the surrounding mountains, I would expect to see a river running between them. But this grassy meadow is a welcome surprise and super vast. In one of the photos you can see how big it is compared to some people off in the distance. This was our first taste of the sights along the road and we were amazed!

Mirror Lakes

About a half hour after Eglinton Valley, we made our second stop at Mirror Lakes. This is a small set of lakes in the valley, and I suspect is supposed to be very reflective. However, today is quite windy and there were more ripples than reflections. Nonetheless I did get a glimpse of some reflection and can see why this would be a beautiful stop on a calm day.

Homer Tunnel

Homer Tunnel is this long tunnel that literally takes you from one side of a mountain range to another! What makes it quite impressive is not just its length and elevation change but how tight it is.  Its a single lane tunnel, and while I think there’s room for a bus and car side by side, it is super tight. Unfortunately, I couldn’t take any photos of Homer Tunnel. Its very dark inside and the interior lights of the bus made it difficult to get any sort of image out. Here’s a photo:

I also found this video of someone driving through the tunnel: (now imagine being on a bus! Insert my repeated desire to drive this!)

From the tunnel, its a short 20 minute drive until we arrive at Milford Sound. Sadly because of the road closure and restrictive transportation rules the area is pretty quiet. The bus convoys only show up a few times a day and so there isn’t much going on except for the Milford Sound Cruises (At least that’s how I observe it). 

Milford Sound Cruise with Southern Discoveries

After parking, we are ushered to the Milford Sound port where we start the boarding process. Originally, we booked with a company called Jucy, however due to our last minute booking, we ended up with Southern Discoveries. While it is a bit pricier I did enjoy our Southern Discovery experience! 

At the port, we run into our friends and learn that we are actually on the same boat together! I love how these coincidences happen. Not only do we get to reunite with our friends but we also have the chance to spend the afternoon with them!

Milford Sound

Our cruise today would take us from Milford Sound out to the Tasman sea and back again. It would take around 2 hours and is incredibly scenic.

Milford Sound is very scenic and very beautiful. We were blessed to have such a gorgeous day to go out and I really enjoyed the leisurely pace our boat took. At one point we even sailed by a rock with some seals enjoying their time out in the sun!

At two points, we the boat actually gets up close to a waterfall to the point that if you wanted to get soaked, you could! I had some electronics I wanted to keep dry to I declined the opportunity. One of the falls is interesting in that it isn’t very powerful. What this means is that depending on the direction of the wind, the direction the falling water takes changes as well!

Once we hit the Tasman sea, our boat loops around and starts making the journey back. This is a great chance to see the opening of Milford Sound and way in.

Minion Down!

It’s at this point where I wanted to take a photo with one of my minions! Sadly, with the boat moving and the wind blowing I just couldn’t keep our beloved purple minion stable on the edge. So it is with great regret that I’m here to announce that the purple minion took a tumble and won’t be making the return trip back with us. Humorously, I did capture the moment “it happened” for posterity. Farewell purple minion may you be eternally travelling, wherever you are! Before you ask, thankfully I do have one or two replacement minions waiting in the wings, so I’ll be back to my full compliment of travelling companions on my next trip!

Milford Sound (Cont.)

After taking a moment to mourn the loss, I recompose myself and make an effort to enjoy the return trip through Milford Sound. I will say that I think the return leg is prettier than the outbound leg. There seems to be more interesting landscape features like more waterfalls in the distance and valleys that lead into mountains. 

I think Milford Sound is a spectacular tourist destination and is something you have to do. However, I don’t think its the “most beautiful” place I’ve had the pleasure of visiting. Thankfully, I’ve been fortunate to be able to travel as much as I have. As a result, I did think that the views and sights at Milford remind me a lot of the Fjords in Norway I visited years ago. Moreover, living in the Pacific North West of North America, sights like these are reminiscent to those in my neck of the woods. Similar to my disclaimer when writing about the Fjords, in no way am I taking away from the beauty of this place. All this does is serve as a constant reminder of first, how amazingly blessed I am to have the means and ability to travel to these beautiful places to experience them. Secondly, that I live in a beautiful part of the world and I often take it for granted. 

The Milford Highway Damage

After returning to the port, we say good bye to our friends and board our bus back to Te Anau. Another problem with being on a bus is that you are stuck on one side of the bus. So, on our way up, our windows didn’t face the side of the highway where the damage and restoration work is. On the way down though, I did snap a photo or two of the damage and the work that’s already been done to bring it all back.

I think given that this road was completely impassable before allows me to appreciate that Gimpy and I could do this today.  Even though I would have enjoyed driving it myself, being able to go at all is certainly a blessing in itself!

The rest of the drive was uneventful and an hour or two later we were back at our cabin satisfied after a long day!

Dinner and Sunset in Te Anau

After a short period of time Gimpy and I headed back to the main building of Barnyard Backpackers and cooked a simple spam, egg, vegetable instant noodle dinner. This always hits the spot and it certainly did today!

After dinner, we headed back to our cabin and were treated to this amazing sunset. We didn’t expect a lot from our accommodations when we first booked this place. But the private cabin overlooking the valley on a day like today really felt like winning the lottery!

All in all, today has been a gorgeous day experiencing some beautiful parts of this Earth! Personally, I think I enjoyed the drive up to Milford more than Milford Sound itself. I think the scale and vastness of the mountain ranges you traverse through to get there is something special. And while I’m disappointed I didn’t get the autonomy of driving it myself and stopping whenever something interesting popped up, the bus ride isn’t all that bad! Tired from the long day and with a long day of driving tomorrow we crashed soon afterwards. Tomorrow we will be driving back to Queenstown then onward to Franz Josef.