Milford Sound is part of the Fiordland National Park. It is the southwest corner of NZ and is BIG. 1.26 million hectares big (3.1 million acres). There are only a few access points by road and we entered via Te Anau. There are parts of park that are only accessible by foot, air or boat. Thankfully for us there is a nice road right to Milford Sound. It is a very popular hiking (or tramping if you speak Kiwi) area and the huts often need to be reserved months ahead of time.
So leaving Queenstown we headed south to Te Anau. This is the last town on the way to the park and we gassed up there and got some snacks.
The road to Milford Sound has no amenities along the way except for lots of public toilets. As I have said before the Kiwi's take their potties seriously and if you have to go don't panic because a loo will come along shortly.
So what is Milford Sound? Actually it is not a true sound but a fiord. It gets 1 million tourist visits per year which is pretty impressive since there are only 4.5 million people in New Zealand.
It is a narrow bay that was carved out by glaciers 20 000 years ago. When you are here you feel really really small.
The road in (apparently) is quite dangerous with lots of accidents and sudden storms. One is recommended to carry tire chains all the time even in the middle of summer. If you do not have them in the winter it will earn you a $750 fine.
It is a road one should just relax and enjoy the drive and not worry about how long it takes you to get where you are going (except I made Matt leave at least an extra hour of leeway because we had a boat cruise booked).
On the way to Milford one will travel through the Homer Tunnel, for some reason somebody (bless William Homer's little heart) thought that to create a pass through this part of the mountains was impossible and drilled a tunnel right through! It is not the safest place in the world and has a history of accidents including quite recently that a man died while doing maintenance.
It was started in 1936 and finished in 1952.
However, we had fabulous weather and a great trip. So of course we arrived super early before our booked cruise...
So we went for a walk... while swatting black flies (they call them sand flies)
and Joelle climbed a tree...
and we played on the beach...
and took some pictures... of pictures.
and other things...
and finally it was time to head over to the boat!! While we were there the port authority was in the middle of expanding both the harbour and the building.
The cruise took us from the most inward point of Milford sound out to the Tasman Sea and back. The mountains around you are just so big and you feel so little. It is very hard to get a feeling of scale in our photos. This one is the best for that.
and we saw some seals lazing around.
It was a bit of a damp and misty day and the kids preferred to stay inside the boat.
After the boat ride, we trekked back to Te Anau to stay for the night.
