Day 23 Milford Sound

Tues 22nd Jan

Sunny periods am 18 degrees, afternoon dire!

Drive to Milford Sound. The only fiord accessible by road.

We set off just after 10 am hoping to have missed the early line of tour buses as we are driving to Milford Sound, one of THE places to take a scenic boat trip in Fiordland and a renowned great 120 kms drive to get there. The signs advise 2 hours, but that’s without a stop, and we plan to stop lots of times. We intend to just do the drive there and back as we are taking a boat trip tomorrow from a different sound. (A Sound is the old name for a Fjord - don’t ask me why it changed)

The scenery is eye watering!

We drive through beech forests on to river views. 

This is Mackey Creek in the Eglington Valley.

Next on to Mirror Lakes where a short boardwalk leads through the beech forest and wetlands to a lake - which reportedly on a calm clear day reflect the Earl Mountains . It is not such a day but it is still very pretty.

Then on to Lake Gunn and  Cascade Creek - known to Māori as O Tampara - it was a regular stopover for parties heading to Anita Bay in search of pounamu ( greenstone). We did the nature walk through the beech forest leading on to the Lake.

As we approached the forest there were various signs advising that poison had been used - to protect the indigenous wildlife and fauna NZ seems to have a policy of trying to kill off any creature brought on to the islands from elsewhere by earlier settlers, eg, rats, rabbits, mice, stoats, possums. There is a saying “ the only good possum is a dead possum”. Carol was looking forward to seeing a possum but it looks like we may be too late... as the only one we’ve yet seen was a dead one - a pelt on a wall in a museum! You can get a variety of knitwear incorporating possum though... 

We did see a few NZ robins as above so guess the policy is working..... Carol can’t help feeling sorry for the possums, rabbits etc .....

The beech forests contain trees which can be up to a couple of hundred years old.  They’re covered in lichen and moss and the contrasting colours are strangely beautiful. We get up close and personal with these old trees, which allows us to understand later how they survive in the fjords. These are nothing like Northern Hemisphere beech, completely different but the same name. We have true beech trees, Fagus. NZ has false beech trees. The forest beech trees are red beeches (unlike the ones that grow along the mountains and fiord hillsides which are silver beeches)

A botanist would love the variety of lichen, mosses etc growing on the trees..

The trail was very informative with signs indicating various species of plants and shrubs, such as...

We tried it ( just crushing the leaves to get the scent - it was truly stinky!)

And on to a glimpse of the lake..

Back on the road we pass this stunning waterfall - the falls went under the road to meet the river at the other side. The force of the water is incredible we have stop for another photo.

Back on the road and the weather is closing in. Everything is changing to monochrome. Black mountains, snow on top. Everywhere the mountains are bleeding water. It all starts getting very ominous. We are going into Mordor!

We finally arrive at the mouth of Mordor, the gate to Hades.

More commonly known as The Homer Tunnel. This single tract 1270m long tunnel is the only vehicular access to Milford Sound. Began as a relief project for unemployment in the 1930’s it finally opened in 1954. Granite hillsides with lots and lots of waterfalls tumbling especially after heavy rainfall frame either end of the tunnel. Down and down we go, a long descent down to Milford Sound.

By the time we arrived in Milton Sound it was pouring down. We take refuge in the Visitor Centre but the rain doesn't abate. The visibility was so bad we couldn’t even see down the Sound. The poor people on the boat won’t be seeing much. Apparently Milford Sound has very steep hillsides which appear to be sheer right down to the water - you can just see a shadow of these at the edge of the photo.

The way back was quicker - less stops, and when we got back to Te Anau - sunshine! 

Although we did manage another rainy walk in yet another forest park en route..

A drop of rain wont put us off ..!

Fingers crossed for a better day tomorrow as we will be taking a boat on Doubtful Sound.