Milford Sound...
Got up early, leaving about 8am to make the journey to Milford Sound. The weather was the best we have had in Queenstown as we left. The trip out of Queenstown was quite beautiful.
We made it to Te Anau, stopped for PB & Js for lunch and continued the most dramatic part of the journey from Te Anau to Milford sound. It passes through a spectacular, glacially carved valley, through a manmade 1-mile long tunnel drilled through a mountain to a steeply descending pass down to Milford Sound. The tunnel has a traffic light that allows traffic to flow in one direction only for 15-minutes and then switches to the other direction. We only waited a few minutes for the light to change from red to green.
It was sunny in Milford Sound, which is amazing. The Sound gets 21-feet of rain a year. It had been raining for the four days previous. We lucked out! We took the Red Boat cruise from Milford through the fjord-like seaway to the Tasman sea and then returned. Because of the extreme depth of the fjord (it actually is a fjord, not a sound), the 100-passenger boat could come up very close to the rock walls. It came close enough to a waterfall that the people on the bow got quite soaked from the spray! We also saw 10-12 seals sunning on the the rocks.
One of the views from the cruise is of glaciers in the upper mountains. No matter where you look the scenery is spectacular!
On the way back to Te Anau we stopped by "The Chasm". It is a waterfall that descends into a grotto of rocks and fallen trees. The walk to it is through a rain forest that is unworldly.
On our return to the parking lot we found a Kea, a wild parrot, chewing the rubber from around the side windows. It had taken chunks out from three of the side windows. They are quite active and funny, when they're not destroying your car, and pick up rocks or bottle caps with their beaks and toss them around.
We stayed in Te Anau for night, making tacos for dinner.
Got up early, leaving about 8am to make the journey to Milford Sound. The weather was the best we have had in Queenstown as we left. The trip out of Queenstown was quite beautiful.
We made it to Te Anau, stopped for PB & Js for lunch and continued the most dramatic part of the journey from Te Anau to Milford sound. It passes through a spectacular, glacially carved valley, through a manmade 1-mile long tunnel drilled through a mountain to a steeply descending pass down to Milford Sound. The tunnel has a traffic light that allows traffic to flow in one direction only for 15-minutes and then switches to the other direction. We only waited a few minutes for the light to change from red to green.
It was sunny in Milford Sound, which is amazing. The Sound gets 21-feet of rain a year. It had been raining for the four days previous. We lucked out! We took the Red Boat cruise from Milford through the fjord-like seaway to the Tasman sea and then returned. Because of the extreme depth of the fjord (it actually is a fjord, not a sound), the 100-passenger boat could come up very close to the rock walls. It came close enough to a waterfall that the people on the bow got quite soaked from the spray! We also saw 10-12 seals sunning on the the rocks.
One of the views from the cruise is of glaciers in the upper mountains. No matter where you look the scenery is spectacular!
On the way back to Te Anau we stopped by "The Chasm". It is a waterfall that descends into a grotto of rocks and fallen trees. The walk to it is through a rain forest that is unworldly.
On our return to the parking lot we found a Kea, a wild parrot, chewing the rubber from around the side windows. It had taken chunks out from three of the side windows. They are quite active and funny, when they're not destroying your car, and pick up rocks or bottle caps with their beaks and toss them around.
We stayed in Te Anau for night, making tacos for dinner.
posted by Chris at 11:00 AM
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