Milford Sound

We got up bright and early (cue sullen children) to get some petrol for our trip to Milford Sound. Upon returning to the car after filling the tank, I thought I smelled something mildewy. As it had already started raining, I suspected an article of clothing. Turns out it was the 'coffee' Jen had purchased at the above-mentioned petrol station. While it smelled of mildew, it tasted of lightly roasted cardboard - but did the job. As a bonus, one of the empty cups came in handy as a receptacle for the contents of Hamish's stomach on the long, winding road north...

As the landscape became more mountainous (ie walls of rock), the creeks criss-crossing the way to Milford became increasingly lax with their boundaries. Swollen rapids surged under those 'quaint' single lane bridges, water streamed across mountain roads to cascade down into the valleys far below. On the upside, I no longer required caffeine to be wide awake.

We were most impressed with the local road crews (there must have been 5 separate groups at least), who busied themselves with clearing fallen trees (the ground too wet to hold the things up anymore), pushing landslides out of the way, and patching bits of sunken road.

Despite the weather and overly-moist mountain roads, we made it to Homer tunnel. Naturally it was a single lane affair, with us having to wait our turn to go through. While waiting, we were more than a little surprised to note a large slab of ice on the side of the road, being slowly melted by the torrents of water coming down the cliff face above.

As a delightful bonus, the Homer Tunnel is not only well over a kilometer long, it descends steeply as you head West. I had a vague sense of driving into an underground mine at one point.

We had been warned about the clouds of sandflies at Milford Sound. I don't think we encountered a single one, all declared missing presumed drowned. The boat we boarded for the cruise looked very impressive indeed, and even had complimentary coffee at the small kiosk. After taking a few sips of it, we thought back with some longing for the mildew-fragranced stuff from earlier in the day...

While the rain and driving wind did not allow a great view of the Sound (Fiord really) as a whole, there were hundreds of waterfalls to be seen. Some would arc off a cliff-top, only to scatter in the wind before reaching the bottom. I managed to take this shot of a section of the fault line spanning the length of New Zealand (between rain squalls). Some foolish passenger decided to try out their umbrella on the top deck - they are now making their way, Mary Poppins-style to Dunedin.


It grew calm enough to get the kiddies up on the top deck, which they loved. We spotted some seals, and we got a few gusts of wind to set the kids to squealing. It was strangely enough, quite a fun day. The weatherman gave a forecast of 'Hold onto your hats' for Invercargill, which is where we are headed tomorrow. I think it will be Switt Ez.