The Amazing day at Milford Sound (I mean fiord!)

The drive from Te Anu to Milford Sound started at 8:30 AM after a yummy breakfast with George at the Te Anu Lodge. We were listening to "This is My Father's World" on Southern Star radio and it seemed amazingly appropriate:
"This is my Father's world: I rest me in the thought of rocks and trees, of skies and seas; his hand the wonders wrought."

 The drive was filled with river gorges and rushing brooks. This was the Eglinton River valley. Some of the way we could have been in the NC mountains.

Until we reached the stone cliffs of the fiord, where the scenery changed.  The mountains had a mysterious haze as the clouds brushed against the stone face. 

The last 10 miles of this road were built during the worldwide depression in the 1939, as a project to employ people, similar to our own WPA project to build the Blueridge Parkway.  They have preserved one of the original, wooden planked bridges as the road has been improved over the years.  It was a suspension bridge with wooden railings. This Tutoko Bridge was built in 1939 and stands next to the one in use.  

The road was open until we reached the Homer Tunnel, which was a steep single lane tunnel.The east end is 230 feet higher than the west end.  There was a stop light and a count down clock at the entrance and we had a 8 minute wait to enter.Here Tom is waiting our turn. This tunnel is closed when it snows because it fills with snow and they have to bring in heavy equipment to clear it.  People in Milford Sound are cut off when  this happens.

This view of Miter Peak was from the boardwalk walking to the wharf at Milford Sound. 

We boarded the cruiser, The Pride of Milford" and had lunch from the buffet that was being served.  Both the lamb stew and the pork belly were good with the rice, roasted potatoes and (Yea!) peas and broccoli.  When we sailed away from the wharf, we went up to the open upper deck for the best view of the fiord.





While there are many waterfalls in the sound, only two of them splash down year round. I have lots of pictures of waterfalls, but I liked this one the Stirling Falls, because it shows a rainbow in the mist. We also saw the  wider falls named the Bowden falls.







Most of the shore line is shear rock cliffs of black stone and we sailed out by Miter peak and to the Tasman sea.  The guide showed us why it had taken explorers so long to find the fiord.  There is a twist in the channel that covers the entrance to the waterway from most angles.  The water is a deep blue mirroring the sky above.  We had beautiful sunshine for our visit.




The hidden entrance followed by the view in with the right position.  The Milford Sound was first discovered by Europeans by a Welsh Captain John Grono in 1812 and both the name Milford and the Cleddau River are named after locations in Wales.  Captain Cook missed this entrance when he earlier explored the West coast. 

The boat circled very close to a small colony of fur seals and then right up to the the Bowden waterfall.  This is where the community of Milford gets its drinking water. 

After an hour cruise, we made a stop at the Southern Discoveries Underwater Observatory. 

We walked down 66 steps to the underwater observatory that was floating but lashed to the mountain side.  Even though the Milford Sound is open to the sea, there is so much fresh water rain and snow melt that there is a layer of fresh water 6 or 7 feet deep floating on top of the salt water. Much of the fresh water being strained through the dark vegetation was colored like tea and acted like sun glasses over the sea water.  Because of this darkening of the water, you can see deep ocean plant and animal life much nearer the surface.

We saw an eleven legged star fish, or ocean star, very unique in that it has eyes in the end of each of its legs.  We also saw a beautiful fragile tube Anemone that looked like a white willow tree and also a scarlet wrasse (pink and white fish).  They had a live specimen of very rare black coral growing on a ledge on the viewing platform.  "Black coral" which is
illegal to have jewelry from in New Zealand, was named black because the dead fragments that were found were black.  However the living coral is a very delicate white structure.  It was sort of like SCUBA diving without needing the air tank.



 After the Discovery observatory, Tom and I went to the kayak shed.  As it turned out, we had a private tour with Carl (which sounded like Kyle when he introduced himself).  They had all the gear ready for us, (pants, jackets, life jackets) and had an ingenious method for launching us.  We got into the kayak with our paddles and then the platform was lowered into the water allowing us to float off.

Our kayaking turned out to be quite delightful.  We crossed Harris Cove to the mouth of the river flowing into the sound.  This is the shallowest point where early exploring ships would pull up to make repairs and find shelter and supplies.

 Then Carl guided us to a rocky point on the shore and showed us three little  penguins. The were unique, maybe 2 feet tall, dark steel blue and white with yellow eyebrows and bright orange beaks. They are called Fiordland Crested penguins and are only found here. Carl said that there was a small colony nesting here, maybe 10 birds.  Quite a treat to see them in the wild. The water on my lens was from my dripping paddle rowing over! 

After kayaking, we caught the next boat back to the wharf and saw dusky porpoises on the way in along with final
views of Bowden falls and the deep blue sound.  

On the drive home, we sopped to see "The Chasm", a place where the Cleddau River has carved its narrow path through the stone, with waterfalls through the gorge. It was a 20 minute climb up from the road to see it, and we saw wonderful moss swathing the trees and more lush fern trees on the trek.  The walk was worth it with dramatic water rushing through the narrow chasm. 

We also stopped at the reflecting pools on the edge of Lake Te Anau.  It was such a great photo spot, they have built a boardwalk among the trees to help you get to the spot to get a great photo of the mountains reflected in the pools.  I loved my picture with snow caps, clouds and sunbeams.

 

It was getting late be the time we got home, so we just stopped at the Fat Duck for dinner.  It has been recommended to us for "regular New Zealand type food".  So we shared a bowl of wonderful corn and chicken chowder and then I had a venison hot pot (sort of like a chicken pot pie with venison).     

 What an amazing, fun, educational, expanding day... made me glad to be alive. 







The last night at the beautiful Te Anau Lodge with the rose stained glass windows and sleeping in the Baptistry.