Moody..Magnificent Milford !!

3/3/2015

Mitre Peak lost in the clouds

 Our much anticipated Milford Sound adventure dawned all wet and miserable, and we, along with our fellow bus part, were pretty disappointed.  Our bus driver/tour guide, Rhys, then told us how lucky we were that it was raining, as this would allow us to see Milford at its magnificent best! 
‘Ya,well no , fine”… I thought, what else would you expect from a tour guide who has to sell Rain to tourists 240 days in a year?

Waterfalls in wonderland?

He was, however right, although he did qualify his view by adding that the rain needed to stop, and the clouds lift, while we went out on the launch! For the most part… it did this too!!

On the 120km bus trip from Te Anau to the Sound we passed the lovely Lake Gunn, the Eglington Valley , Knob Flats. We learnt that Milford was in fact a Fiord, and not a Sound….. created by a glacier, not a river.

Gunn Lake en route to the Sound

Mirror lake

Knob Flats

The Chasm

 We saw the Mirror Lakes, the Chasm, and the 1.2km long Homer tunnel, and thousands of non permanent waterfalls decorating the cliffs like Broekie Lace!

Our tour boat, the Spirit of Milford, was big and comfortable, and intentionally only carries about half of the 240 passengers it is capable of carrying, so there is ample opportunity to move around, and get out of the weather at times!

Bowen Falls

The Bowen Falls, at the head of the sound, provide not only the drinking water for Milford, but also the hydro electric power for the township.

The concealed entrance to Milford Sound from the Tasman Sea

The numerous waterfalls indeed made for a spectacular sight, as we headed out of the entrance into the Tasman sea,... an entrance that had been missed by Cook, and only discovered much later by a Welsh Sealer, driven into the sound while trying to escape one of the frequent storms!

 As we re-entered the Sound, we passed ”Seal Point”, and approached the Stirling Falls….one of the permanent falls under which the tour boats poke their bows, to drench and amaze their guests. The falls are incredibly high, (at 151mts, way higher than Niagra falls), but in the scale of the enormous sheer mountain cliff side (way taller than the world’s tallest buildings), it is easy to forget this.

 

Some nutty woman base jumped off this cliff face for an advert a few years back. She first had to climb down the face to the overhanging lip, after being lowered by helicopter, before leaping away and releasing her ‘chute. When she was lifted out of the water by the camera boat, the photographer apologised to her and said “Sorry, the camera jammed”, so you will have to do it again….

Her reply was unprintable ..   

Discovery Centre

From there we were taken to the Discovery Centre, a unique ,10mt deep reverse aquarium, where the creatures and sealife of Milford are afforded the chance to view tourists through glass windows, all peering out at them.

As we left the centre to head back to the Ferry terminal, the weather closed in again, and we realised quite how lucky we had been, to see Milford in all her moods.