Day 25: Te Anau Rest Day
Journal for 2014-11-13 | Published on 2014-11-13 01:32:40Today was entirely filled with a trip to Milford Sound via a Real Journeys tour. We left this morning in a bus designed just for this trip, it had plush seats facing slightly outwards, large windows, and half of the roof was glass also. There were only 17 people on the bus this chilly spring morning so everyone got a window seat. Our driver Curls introduced herself and asked each person where they were from and remembered them all.
Off we went down the Milford Highway. We had debated biking this road and in the end decided not to, it is 120km one way, with no shoulders, and an incredible number of tourist busses and campervans. So instead we enjoyed our coach ride. The bus stopped at Mirror Lakes which had very still water reflecting the snowcapped mountains across the valley.
We reached Homer Tunnel which is a single lane tunnel bored through the side of a mountain which took 20 years to complete (they paused for 9 years during WWII). It is an impressive tunnel to travel through and we were grateful not to be navigating it on our bicycles.
Coming out through the tunnel were thrilled to see blue skies and the beauty of Fiordland in front of us. It is difficult to describe and I will leave most of it to the pictures I took. We descended down to Milford Sound and went immediately to our cruise boat, the Milford Mariner. The boat was the same one they use for the overnight trips, so it was rather large and had very comfortable accommodations. It also has sails in addition to just conventional motors.
The crew said it had been weeks since they had seen blue skies and we knew that we were pretty lucky to get to cruise on a day like today. Off into Milford Sound we sailed, the smooth bay waters, surrounded on each side by massive Fiords rising out of the water beyond 1000 meters high, green forests clinging on to the sides of the rocks and the occasional waterfall cascading off the side, all capped with snow on the peaks. It was truly breathtaking.
We sailed around the entirety of Milford Sound including a small venture out to the Tasman Sea. Along the way we were awed in every direction that we looked and saw a few swimming Fiordland Penguins and Fur Seals, but not as many as on our Doubtful Sound tour. Somehow we managed to scarf down a picnic lunch in between picking our jaws off the deck from the beauty of it all.
Finally the cruise came to an end and we headed back to the bus. Pam and I were pleasantly surprised to find that we had a number of stops on the way back which included various short walks and photo opportunities. We took a walk around the foreshore of Milford Sound, saw the Milford fishing port, a walk above “The Chasm,” walked a suspension bridge, and saw the highest peak (Mt. Tutoko, 2,723m) in Firodland National Park, all before traveling through the Homer Tunnel again. In this direction it was uphill through the tunnel, again glad we didn’t try to bicycle this.
On the other side of the tunnel we paused for an alpine walk seeing the Mt. Cook Lilly which is blooming right now, got to feel like we were in a Lord of Rings type set because of the views, paused on a one lane bridge to take a picture of a waterfall, overlooked the Hollyford Valley, filled our waterbottles from a crystal clear alpine stream, and stopped at the Knob Hill rest area.
We were very pleased and tired from our day tour. It was rather amazing and we highly recommend it to anyone heading this direction in the world. After being dropped off we popped in to the DOC visitor center to see their exhibits, got some ice cream, did grocery shopping, cooked/ate dinner, and did laundry.
Tomorrow we are heading out to North Mavora Lake which is a DOC campsite, so we will have no internet. We expect to be in Queenstown the next night but won’t be staying long, we are back on the road and heading up the West Coast for the next leg of our tour. While it has been fun being normal tourists we are ready to get riding again.
Valley leading to Milford
Moon over then mountains
Mirror Lake reflections
Looking straight up from the bottom of the mountains
?Bishops Peak? in Milford Sound
Milford Sound
Matt and Pam in Milford Sound
Milford Sound
Waterfalls cascading over 100m in Milford Sound
Tasman Sea looking towards Milford Sound
Panorama of Milford Sound
The Chasm rock formations, the curves and circles are all natural
Pam welcoming you to Middle Earth, not that this spot in particular was used in the movies, but it had the feel to it.
Wow! Beautiful! That's all I can say :-) love you guys. Can't believe it's been 25 days.
Thanks Penny! Sometimes it seems like it has been forever, but always it seems like we don't have enough time. There is so much to see!
I wrote volumes of really good material and forgot to put my name and email information before pushing post, so somewhere in cyber space is my message, maybe a hitchhiker some where in the universe will see it and think that is the better answer to life, the universe, and everything, and I will from that point on be known as a God. Which means that , you Matthew, will be the son of God. peace and love, mom
Thanks mom, not sure if you know this, but I wrote the software that is running this site. So having comments like that is actually very helpful, I will see if I can change the code so that next time your post won't be lost :) -Matt