This morning was an early start due to the horrifically long drive to what is widely regarded as one of the most scenic places in the world, Milford Sound. With my alarm set for half 6, I surprisingly beat it as my phone was the other side of the room and when randomly waking up to check the time it was 6.25! After having one of them showers where I didn't want to get out due to the cold air outside, I treated myself to a bacon, egg and cheese sub for breakfast. I seem to be getting a little carried away with the whole not cooking idea at the moment! Still a $3 sub brought no complaints from me.
By half 7 we left Invercargill after seeing an amazing sunrise which coloured the whole sky orange above the city skyline. Saying city in New Zealand is generally like saying town in the UK though. The last few days I have been exploring what is collectively known as the deep south on the bottom bus, however my trip to Milford Sound was operated by kiwi experience. Due to this our driver put his foot down in the minibus heading back north so we could intersect the kiwi bus heading south. Luckily we made the connection smoothly, arriving at a layby at Five Rivers by 9, seeing a few familiar faces on our new half empty coach.
A short drive later we arrived into our first proper stop of the day, Te Anau. Widely regarded as the gateway to the Ffordland National Park, we stopped here for a good half hour. This small settlement lies on the second largest lake in New Zealand formed by glacial activity like most landforms in the south island. I was tempted to stay a couple of nights here to do one of the great walks but they are so expensive with national park fees and hut hire fees which can be around $50 a night! They are also one way tracks and I would have ended up somewhere random. I just thought I would settle for the one day hikes.
Leaving Te Anau we started our drive down the Milford Road rated as one of the top 10 drives in the world. Taking 25 years to construct it winds its way through the national park right down to the Milford Sound. Our first stop off along this scenic road was the mirror lakes which are named for obvious reasons due to the reflections they give off. The surrounding hills were pretty special too with clouds floating below them rather than being shrouded in them which made this area very picturesque.
A short drive later down the road passing 45" latitude, the halfway point between the south pole and equator, we arrived at Knobs Flat. This was a toilet stop, although there was an information centre which was interesting showing the impact of things like stoats on the native wildlife species. New Zealand used to be teeming with bird life which evolved to be flightless in many cases as there were no predatory cycles. That all changed when the Maori people arrived around a 1000 years ago introducing mammals and hunting birds like the Moa to extinction. This was made worse when European migration begun which included the logging of many areas creating loss of habitat. In the matter of a few generations a once thriving country of biodiversity now has some of most endangered species in the world.
The next stop along was at the Holyford creek, which was an area surrounded by snow capped mountains. It was here we filled up our water bottles and had a quick photo stop. I love how so many places have streams which have water so fresh you can drink. Continuing along the scenic road through an avalanche risk zone, we got to Homers Pass. Luckily there is no snow for avalanches yet and the only risk we had was rock falls, although apparently there are tree avalanches here too as the lack of soil round here means trees are loosely attached to the side of mountains. In terms of Homers Pass, this was a 1.2km tunnel created through using explosives to take away the granite. It was a single lane tunnel however which meant we had a little wait before going through.
From the tunnel it was one last push down to the Milford ferry terminal, stopping just after the tunnel for another photo stop. We dropped sharply after this along winding roads before finally emerging at Milford Sound. This world heritage area is not actually a sound as the name suggests but actually a fford. This glacial landform now attracts visitors worldwide for cruises and even scenic flights round the area. We were doing a 2 hour cruise round the area. Before boarding we got our packed lunches which had a sandwich, cheese, crackers, apple, kiwi, cookie and a carton of juice in.
In terms of the cruise we got presented with scenery in all directions for the duration of the cruise. Passing waterfalls cascading down the rugged walls along with snow-capped mountains and endless forest making up the background round the steep granite cliffs, it was truly something special. Perhaps the highlight was seeing this fur seal colony close up on these rocks, although we weren't lucky enough to see any penguins. Our cruise took us all the way out to the Tasman Sea and back the other side. At one point we went into this waterfall which gave off this mist which looked like cloud in the water. The other impressive feature was sitting below this monster mountain. It was a real scenic cruise in the end made better by the fact it was a sunny day.
By 3.15 we started our drive back to Queenstown. We did have the option of flying back though which would have saved about 3.5 hours off the journey home and set me back nearly $700! Our driver pointed out we had been lucky because Milford Sound has on average 2 out of 3 rainy days a year, and we had sun. Going back the way we came, it was slightly worrying when the tunnel sign stated it was shut. Luckily it was only a 10 minute wait in the end and we continued through. It was interesting looking at the scenery outside from the other direction as it felt completely different. En route we home we stopped off at Te Anau again just for any supplies and a toilet stop for the last bit of our journey.
Arriving back in Queenstown by around half 7, getting a cracking sunset on the bus going home, I checked into my new hostel, base. I just fancied a change of scenery for my second stint in Queenstown. To be fair however Nomads was probably better as when checking into my room it was like a bombsite with stuff everywhere. It was also dark which meant I just quietly unpacked my stuff into the drawer which I can't understand why no one else did, and just relaxed on my bed. Dinner this evening was pasta to be quick and easy, although afterwards I went straight to bed as I was knackered. I thought I would give nighttime Queenstown a day off considering I have 3 more nights here.
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