Milford Sound

Our bus took us a long way today, from Queenstown to Milford Sound on the west coast of the South Island.  The first picture shows our route (178 miles each way), the second shows the sound itself.  It's easy to envision a glacier flowing generally northwest, gouging out deep canyons as it went.  One of them reached the Tasman Sea and became Milford Sound.  Point A in the second image is where we boarded the boat for a cruise of the sound.

Google Earth image

Google Maps image

When we started out, the weather looked pretty good.  This was taken just outside Queenstown.

We followed a very windy road, and passed lots of gorgeous South Island scenery.

Stu's Orgasmic World Famous Fishing Shop (yes, you read that right).  Stu's is world famous for its hand-made fishing flies, and sells to fishermen all over the world.  One of our group really wanted to stop there, but we didn't have the time.

The Māori name for New Zealand is Aotearoa, meaning "Land of the Long White Cloud."  These are good examples; we passed lots of scenes like these.

Many of the fields have windbreaks like these, made from tall trees.

Some of the windbreaks have been trimmed straight across the top, as if with giant hedge clippers.

We cruised along to classical music provided by Jack's iPad.

We stopped at Mirror Lakes, but by then it was raining hard enough that the surface of the lake was no longer a mirror.

Jack Allen photo

This fallen tree was presented as a Hobbit house, but we had some doubts.  Maybe a down-market Hobbit house.

Most of the mountain tops are lost in mist now.

The view out the window, with the rain collecting on the outside and then looking through the rain.

At one of our photo stops, these parrot-like birds were climbing over people's cars and trying to remove the rubber seals around the windows.  The birds are extremely curious.

Jack Allen photo

Jack Allen photo

Nancy Keating photo

Nearing Milford Sound, we must pass through a tunnel.  It's only one lane wide, so traffic must take turns going through.  Here we're waiting for our turn to go.

Jack Allen photo

The tunnel is lighted by occasional overhead lights, but it's not at all bright.  Until a few years ago, there were no lights at all.

Jack Allen photo

When the bus exited the tunnel, our driver was presented with the first of a whole series of hairpin turns on the descent into Milford Sound.

Jack Allen photo

On the Milford Sound side of the tunnel, we saw lots of water flowing down the mountains.  Most of these aren't really waterfalls, they're runoff from the rain and will disappear when the rain stops.  That's dirty snow at the bottom of the first photo.

At Milford Sound, we boarded the Milford Monarch for our voyage to the edge of the Tasman Sea.  It seems that everyone, not just our group, headed straight for the buffet.

The boat wasn't crowded.  Each person could have had a table to themselves if they wished.  The rain is coming down harder now.

The boat's captain on the bridge, and his view out the bridge windows.

The stern had an area that was covered but otherwise open to the weather.  The wind was blowing fairly hard, bringing lots of spray on board.  It was a popular area in which to pose for photos.

Janis Segress photo

 Others preferred to shoot photos from inside, without the wind and spray.

There was another boat following not too far behind us. Note how steeply the side of the mountain descends into the water.

We passed lots of streams pouring down the mountain sides.

Our captain brought the boat near the shore so we could see several small penguins.

Jack capured this great shot of an iPad being used to take a photo or video.

Jack Allen photo

Back on the bridge, several of us got to try out the captain's seat.

Jack Allen photo

The weather outside is still frightful.  If it had been smooth, we would have ventured out into the Tasman Sea, but it was too stormy for that today.

Back at the dock, and still raining hard.  The captain said that this was the stormiest day he had seen on the sound in quite some time.

During the long drive back to Queenstown, the weather cleared up dramatically.

A small country church.

We'd passed all this breathtaking scenery on our way to the sound (there's only one road), but then it was hidden by clouds and rain.

A long day, but a very interesting one. Tomorrow we have quite a bit of free time for people to do whichever activities they choose.

We have since learned that a rock slide closed the road to Milford Sound the day after we visited there.  There's only one road, so those on the Milford Sound side are stuck there until the slide is cleared.