An assault on the senses
As we arrived home in the late evening, Hale perfectly described the eastern half of the drive to Milford Sound and the fjord cruise as “an assault on the senses.” The beauty was truly overwhelming – out of this world, bigger than life, stupendous.
I started the journal entry for today with that prelude because words can’t describe it and the pictures surely don’t do it justice, so instead I’ll just chronicle what we did and hope you get a general sense.
Milford Sound is a “must-do” for all New Zealand tourists and therefore quite busy. We booked a 3pm boat ride so we would have a more peaceful experience knowing that the vast majority of people go on boats around the noon hour.
That worked out perfectly and is what I would recommend to others. (And book tickets through bookme.co.nz which has great deals for the current week on all sorts of tourist activities.) All the tour busses were leaving as we arrived and there were only a handful of boats out in the water with us.
We had decided against doing hikes on the two-hour drive over since this is the heart of sandfly territory, so instead we had a slow morning where I enjoyed a short walk along the beach and through the beech woods in Manapouri.
The drive started out along beautiful Lake Manapouri, passing pretty Te Anau Lake and then quickly entered into valley territory – huge sweeping grass fields surrounded by mountain ranges.
We stopped for a few quick looks and then started up the climb to the Divide and on to the Homer Tunnel. This route doesn’t have a pass – instead the road passes through a 1.2km long tunnel right through the granite mountains. It is an engineering marvel, but nowhere near as impressive as what nature has created in this area.
It is pure magnificence right here…immediately on the side of the road. There are peaks and waterfalls everywhere in this area, but the 500 meter high rocky crag cliffs here are unbelievable with waterfalls too numerous to count, falling from the sky down this amazing beauty.
We were stopped there for 8 minutes while the one-way tunnel cleared and I wish it had been the whole day.
Coming out the other end is glorious as well, with peaks of grey and green coursing with white waterfalls lining the route down to Milford Sound.
When we arrived, we had just enough time to gawk around on our way to check in for our ferry ride. We had opted for a small boat and rushed to get seats on top where we were really in for a treat.
The day was blue skies and white fluffy clouds in the sound, although it turned foggy and grey when we ventured out to the ocean – much more reminiscent of our Doubtful Sound weather.
Milford Sound is much smaller and more dramatic than Doubtful, with higher, closer cliffs. The sun on the greenery was a major change as well.
Grey cliffs, green meadows, green moss, great white waterfalls, shimmering slim waterfalls, seals and a glacier, all surrounding a deep blue body of water.
We loved every minute of it and again, I can’t possibly describe it to you.
The drive home was breathtaking and we stopped for a few short walks, returning home late and happy.
More Pictures from the drive back
