We signed up for a small group tour of the Milford Sound with Fiordland Tours out of Te Anau. Milford Sound is quite a place, a fiord inside Fiordland National Park – a world heritage site once called the ‘8th wonder of the world’ by no less than Rudyard Kipling. Our route takes us along the Milford Road, considered to be the most scenic in New Zealand, to the Sound itself.
I’m glad I’m not driving – steep, narrow, no shoulder, with incredible views the entire length of the ride. Our driver Ray is quite entertaining with comments on the history of the area, the amazing construction of the road, and nature. The ride crosses the 45th South Parallel which is a half-way point between the Equator and South Pole and ‘the Divide’ which separates Western and Eastern New Zealand (South Island). The road passes through the Homer Tunnel, nearly a mile long, carved by hand out of sheer granite. Madness.
The cruise itself is amazing, even though the rains are pretty fierce. Deep valleys pierce the Sound with hundreds of waterfalls. Amazing. Not too much wildlife about but we did see a dozen or so teenage male fur seals.
Dick
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The weather is not looking good this morning and we are off to Milford Sound for a boat tour. We are picked up by Ray and join a band of 14 fellow travelers. The drive to Milford is as much a part of the tour as the cruise. We make numerous stops for photo opportunities and short hikes. One hike involves a small suspension walking bridge with a load limit of 10 people. It is sturdier than it looks but sways like crazy just the same.
The road we are travelling on was built by hand in the early 1900’s, during the New Zealand depression. Men were given a wheelbarrow, a shovel and a pickaxe, work was suspended during World War I, but ultimately the road was finished. This also included the building of a tunnel through the granite rock of the Southern Alps, also by hand – it was quite impressive. We are told that the road in the tunnel was gravel until the late 1980’s.
The boat is smaller than we expected, so a much more intimate experience. We spend two hours cruising through the Milford Sound, created by glaciers many moons ago. As it has been raining all day, the bonus is the hundreds of waterfalls we are seeing. The area gets about 10 meters (32 feet) of rain a year.
A nice dinner at Keplers finishes off the day.
Mary