Milford Sound

Milford Sound is likely the most remote place where we’ve ever stayed, in every sense of the word. The sound itself is in a huge National park, 2 hours from the closest town, one road in, same road out. There is only one lodge in a huge area where people can stay. Otherwise, the closest anyone can stay is in the town that’s 2 hours away (Te Anau). The place right in Milford Sound is called the Milford Sound Lodge:

It’s in a gorgeous setting, between the very green mountains that were carved by glaciers. And it’s just like summer camp: bedrooms that sleep 4 people in bunk beds, communal bathrooms in a separate building, and a communal kitchen where everyone cooks (and everyone cooks because there’s nowhere else to eat). There’s also a cozy lounge with tables and couches, where we spent one entire day because it was storming all day.

View from the lounge:

I’ve gotten ahead of myself. The drive in to Milford Sound, like every other drive thus far, was incredible… We saw our first sheep crossing! “Sheep crossing” isn’t the most accurate name for it, since sheep weren’t so much crossing the road as much as walking on the road for about half a mile. The man in the truck told us that he (and his hard-working sheep dogs) moved about 2,000 sheep. The second picture gives a better idea of how long they were on the road – they went along to the left, and then up to the right all the way out of the scope of the photo.

It was another rainy driving day, which (again) gave the scenery that foggy, surreal quality

The rain was really coming down, and there were heaps (to use a common NZ term) of waterfalls coming down the steep mountains (we found out the next day that these waterfalls are only there when it rains). In this picture, there’s a guy in a red jacket in the foreground that gives some scale to the size and sheerness of the mountain.

Milford Sound in the Fog

After checking in at “Summer Camp,” we went in the rain to check out the sound – again, the “foggy mood” made the scenery indescribable:

Milford Sound in the Sun

The next morning was gloriously sunny, so we took a drive to re-trace our steps to see the scenery without the fog:

Then we went back along the road we drove in on, to see what we missed in the fog.

Here’s the lookout view in the fog:

Here’s the same lookout in the sun:

Then we took a hike through lush green forest to see some falls.

There was a rainbow in the mist over one of the small falls.

Along this lone road of the area, there’s a one-lane (but two-way) tunnel through a mountain, and the red light for it is about 15 minutes (while the opposite direction goes through). While we were waiting, a kea (a large alpine parrot) visited the cars that were waiting. The kea is considered to be extremely intelligent and extremely mischievous – apparently it will take stuff apart if given the opportunity.

On someone else’s car:

The mountains are really huge, I wish that there were some more people in the foreground (or on the mountains) to show the scale of how huge the mountains are.

Kayaking Trip:

That afternoon, we took a kayaking tour.

Gearing up (again)

The guide took us out on a bigger boat, and unloaded the kayaks into the water, and then us into the kayaks:

Before going any further, I must point out that “Milford Sound” is a misnomer. Milford is actually a fjord. While sounds were carved by rivers (like Marlborough Sounds were), the Milford Sound/Fjord was carved by glaciers. The point of all this is that Milford looks very different than sounds – the mountains in Milford are huge and steep, and the water is as deep as the mountains are high. But enough of the geology lesson, here’s the scenery:

This was also a small kayaking group, just 6 people (including ourselves), plus a guide. They were a group of friends from London.

There were a couple of seals! We were just about 10 feet away from them, but they didn’t seem to mind us at all:

We paddled into this waterfall, the highest one in the sound (ahem, fjord) – 160 meters high.

More unbelievable scenery:

Again, we were very happy in our kayak (even though the double kayak is nicknamed the “divorce maker”), good teamwork. The easy trip on the Marlborough Sound probably prepared us for the choppier, more demanding trip on the fjord.

One thing to point out: we have exactly 215 photos from the kayaking trip alone (all except for 6 taken by Vince)… And in order for us both to be paddling, the camera must be safely tucked away in the dry bag… which means that for all of the aforementioned photos (except for the 6), plus time to pack/unpack the camera in the dry bag, Vince wasn’t paddling. So for a considerable amount of time, one of us literally carried the weight of both of us. I think I’ll have another chocolate.

We spent the next day in the lounge, writing blogs and playing board games – it poured all day, culminating in a storm of gale-force winds in the evening.

On our way out the next morning, the kea visited us during our 15-minute wait to get through the one-lane tunnel – on our car this time:

And we left the same way we came in, through the rain.