Explore NZ - Day 15 - 22 April 2018 - Day trip to Milford Sound

It had been so cold in the night that I found sleep very difficult to come by. After a lot of tossing and turning I managed a few hours of sleep, but I did not feel rested by the time I finally woke up. It was cold in the living and dining areas too. Shukla turned the AC on and increased the temperature so that the room started getting more comfortable. Hetal checked out if the fireplace could be made operational. When the grill in front of the fireplace was removed I found a pamphlet on the floor, which was about Jucy transportation and cruises to Milford Sound from Te Anau and Queenstown. The itinerary looked quite good and rates sounded reasonable too. Shukla insisted that we book by that and avoid the day’s drive. I was a bit apprehensive that we may miss the pickup time of 7.50 am. However, thanks to his insistence, I went ahead and booked for the four of us at a per head rate of NZD 139. I gave a nearby hotel as the pickup point.

We were ready well before the time we had thought of and I set out in search of the pickup point. That was the first mistake I did. The actual pickup point was just 3 minutes’ walk from our accommodation, but I walked all of us to the Te Anau waterfront terrace. I found many people standing beside the road and one of them with who I enquired told me that he was waiting for the Jucy pickup. We joined him and then, in a while, the sun started coming up over the mountains and there was a beehive of activity with people started running across the road and along the lake to get to vantage positions to get good views and photos.

In the melee I lost the guy with who we were waiting. Amidst this confusion Hetal saw a Jucy Van drive past and stop at a hotel beyond where we were waiting. I was foxed and was wondering what to do when I saw the same bus coming back, but on the opposite side of the road. I did what only came to my mind at that time. I waved down the van and fortunately it stopped. I went to the driver and explained how we couldn’t find our pick. He went through his list and told me that we were not on his list. I requested that he do something about it. The generous driver phoned up his company and discovered the awful truth that I had booked for the next day! However, since his van still had room he told his company that he would accommodate us for the trip this day. He even gave instructions to the girl from the company, who was on the phone line, about how to arrange three veg and one chicken meal during the cruise. All this delayed the departure, but how can you explain such generosity and largeness of heart? The help by the driver, whose scintillating commentary was a highlight of the tour, avoided another loss such as the one I suffered at the ferry point in Wellington. All is well that ends well. We settled into the comfortable seats in the van and the tour began with 20 tourists.

The driver, Frank, kept up a lively commentary of the places that we passed through; short history of some of them interspersed with good humor. Frank explained that Fiordland is the largest National park in New Zealand and that it is dominated by steep sides of the Southern Alps, deep lakes and steep glacier carved valleys flooded by waters. Much of the region is inaccessible due to the weather conditions and steep terrain. Therefore, the area has the largest extent of pristine vegetation, endemic plants and extinct animals. There are 12 major fiords, a variant of the Scandinavian Fjords, in Fiordland and none of them is accessible fully by road as Milford Sound is. The region also is home some of the tallest waterfalls in the world and largest lakes in the country. The Fiordland is also a favorite with movie makers, Frank mentioning the Hobbit movies and Wolverine.
  

Milford Sound is 120 km from Te Anau and less than three hours with plenty of stops on the way for oohs, aahs and narcissist selfies. The Mirror Lake is a popular stopover where, on a clear day, as it was this day, the Earl Mountains can be seen perfectly reflected on the lake surface. There is a short board walk and a viewing platform from where a sign “Mirror Lakes” can be seen reflected in the water. All along the way there are millions of beech trees and Frank said that many of the beech forests are intact due to inaccessibility. He mentioned about the Takahe, the flightless bird indigenous to New Zealand that was presumed extinct for nearly 50 years till it was rediscovered in 1948. The Kea, is one of the largest specimens from the parrot family. They were seen in many of the car parks we stopped in. The olive-green alpine parrot with brilliant orange under its wings is known for its curiosity and intelligence. A couple of fellow tourists told me how they can destroy windshield beeding and tyres of parked vehicles with their strong, curved beak. The bird is now in the endangered and protected list and there are warnings all over asking tourists not to feed them.

As the trip wore on it became evident to me that such organized ‘conducted’ tours are more informative than just driving to a place and getting away from it. However, the freedom to stop and enjoy the landscape is much more in self-driving trips. Some for and some against, I guess. Frank pointed out the Te Anau Downs as the departure point for popular trek of Milford Track and for great views of the Murchison mountains. The Eglinton Valley is one of the few accessible valleys in Fiordland and is home to a large variety of flora and fauna unique in its own way. The Knobs Flat in the Eglinton valley was the base camp for those who built the road to Milford Sound, including the 1.2 km one way Homer tunnel with a steep gradient of 1 in 10. Knobs Flat is also the last toilet stop before Milford Sound. Frank said that he was stopping over for a few minutes there as he “did not want anyone leaking from the ears”! On the way we did cross the 45^th parallel, which signified that we are halfway between the Equator and the South Pole. Evidence of careless driving was there too, with at least two vehicles abandoned, after crashes, lying on the side of the road. Many places on the way also showed signs of past and recent rock falls.

Frank told us about the Hidden Lakes in the region and stopped for us to admire Lakes Gunn and Marian. In some places there were road warning about ice on the road; I saw them melting from tree tops and falling on to the road in a few locations. The drive made me appreciate the carpet of ferns on the sides of the mountain ridges. The leaves are so thick and green that most of them looked artificial. Once we got to Milford Sound Frank helped us get on to the cruise with special instructions regarding our food.

Aboard the “Gem of Sound” we were privileged to have another bright commentator, Andrew, who in his inimitable style, took us on a wonderful 90 minute cruise of what is touted as the eighth wonder of the world, Milford Sound. While that description is a bit over the top, the marketing of this lovely place certainly deserves to be commended. Andrew told us how the Sound was completely hidden from view of the ocean and that Captain Cook had missed it twice. Milford Sound was discovered in the first quarter of the 19^th century and Donald Sutherland, a sour behaved man, was its first settler in the last quarter of the same century. The commentary described the landscape of the fiords, the peaks, especially the majestic Mitre, the numerous waterfalls and the mouth of the Tasman Sea. Andrew mentioned that the Tasman Sea is one which kept the Australians at bay, perhaps, referring to the great trans-Tasman rivalry between the two countries. He took the boat close to two waterfalls, one to admire the hanging gardens and the other to be sprayed by the superb Fairy waterfall.

On the return trip to Te Anau Frank stopped at a few more places, but I got out of the van just once. To admire The Chasm, a loop walk that took me through thick rainforest to the awesome chasm. Flood waters of the Cleddau River is said to have moved the rocks down the mountain face, carved impressive designs and holes into it for the awesome sight they are today. The gushing waters seem ready to sweep you down when viewed from the board platform. I slept most of the way, catching up on what was lost during the night. Frank dropped us in front of our accommodation after Shukla and I helped him to store some things away in a shed.

We spent the rest of the day walking on the pretty streets of the town, window shopping and even going into some to check out prices and fitting. The leisurely walk on the waterfront and well maintained residential areas helped us appreciate the civic responsibility of the citizens and the administration. Dinner of noodles with baked beans and spam called for a dessert in the Kepler restaurant. It was brimming with customers and we just about managed a table to try out the cheesecake and dessert of the day, a lemony, meringue based gem.

So that was how the long day panned out. The Guardian Angel was on full display – had it not been for Frank we would have had a bad day. As it turned out, we had a wonderful day in bright sunshine. I had been apprehensive about the drive from Nelson to Greymouth to Wanaka to Te Anau and Milford Sound because of the possible harsh weather. But, we did have good weather conditions for the most part of this segment. Now it’s on to the last leg of the ‘Explore New Zealand’ leg of the expedition that began almost eight weeks ago.