Monday, August 31, 1998
We awoke early, as the boat tour we wanted to take departed at 12:30 and we had been advised by the woman at the tourist info center to allow 5 hours to get to the sound. We headed south following the edge of Lake Wakatipu for 20 miles or so. The peaks on the other side of the lake were massive, which probably explains why the distance by road from Queenstown is so much greater than the distance as the crow flies.
During a photo stop on the side of the road, we could hear the very peculiar songs of some nearby birds, one song which was similar to the cry of a loon ending with a low pitched honk. New Zealand, having been separated from the rest of the world for 150 million years, has some very unique plant life and bird life. Some of the birds make sounds that sound very strange to North American ears. When shaving with the bathroom window open my first morning in Auckland, I was reminded of Jurassic Park. (Thanks, Rich, for the analogy.)
Another thing that will seem foreign to North Americans (Californians anyway) is the Kiwi method of speed limit enforcement. Kiwis use radar in the form of an unmanned radar gun attached to a camera. If the vehicle of the speeder is going faster than a threshold speed, the radar reading triggers the camera, day or night. The lucky victim receives a speeding ticket in the mail. Kiwi courtesy being what is, there are signs warning drivers that they are entering a speed camera area. It's up to the driver to decide whether it really is a speed camera area. As Americans who have seen the infamous "speed enforced by aircraft" signs already know, signs are cheaper than equipment and personnel, and therefore more prevalent. (However, take heed of the aircraft enforcement signs on I-5 and I-80 in California.) The cameras on NZ roads are normally hidden (although not always), so it isn't always easy to tell.
After leaving the shores of Lake Wakatipu, we drove through some broad grassy valleys surrounded by snow-covered peaks. Shortly after that we got caught up in some pea-soup fog that lasted until we were on the other side of Te Anau. Te Anau is the only town of any size between Queenstown and Milford. It is about 170 km out of Queenstown and 110 km from Milford. This is the place to stock up on gas, groceries or anything else, as there isn't much in Milford.
The fog cleared on the other side of Te Anau. After driving through some rolling terrain, you enter Fiordland National Park, cross the 45th parallel in the midst of a dense forest and end up in a dramatic U-shaped glacial valley, with meadows on the valley floor and rocky, snow covered mountains on each side. Leaving the meadows you pass by a couple of lakes, drive by the Mirror Lakes, which are actually stagant ponds, well hidden by southern beech trees, but live up to their namesake when it comes to reflecting the nearby peaks.
After passing by the Mirror Lakes, the real fun begins. The road climbs into a narrow canyon, with several one-way sections. Leaving the canyon, the ascent to the Homer Tunnel begins. You enter an area where stopping anywhere on the road is prohibited, due to avalanche danger. The tour bus operators will use their radios to report license numbers of violators, who will have an unpleasant surprise waiting for them at Milford, so take heed of these warnings. The Homer Tunnel is a three-quarter mile long tunnel that drops a thousand feet going from east to west, and was constructed during the Depression by a crew that used picks and shovels. After leaving the west portal of the tunnel, the road drops steeply down to Milford.
Our trip took a little under four hours and that included many photo stops and a petrol stop. Rich was driving considerably faster than the 100 km speed limit in the flat open sections which shortened the time. We signed up for a cruise on Red Boat Cruises, and at the Red Boat Cruises man's recommendation, walked the ten minutes to Bowen Falls, a 500+ foot cascade accessible via a boardwalk.
The Milford area is spectacular and is rightfully entitled to its status as a World Heritage site. Much like Yosemite, the Grand Canyon or the French Alps, you can see all the photos in the world, but a 4 x 6 inch photo fails to inspire the same amount of awe as seeing it in person. We were lucky. Although Milford receives an average of 300 inches of rain a year, we had clear skies, with a few wisps of clouds in the higher peak and a calm day, which allowed the Sound to reflect the nearby peaks in all their grandeur. Temperatures were chilly but not unreasonably so (lower 40's to lower 50's). It was considerably warmer than when we had left Queenstown that morning.
Our tour was on the Lady Bowen, one of the smaller boats in the Red Boat fleet. I highly recommend the $50 boat ride ($40 for a one and a half hour tour without the Milford Underwater Laboratory.) The captain of the boat was very informative about the surrounding area, and the boat allows you to see areas accessible only by water. We saw numerous waterfalls, sheer cliffs thousands of feet high, and numbers of seals in different locations. The captain slowed the boat down where he thought there may be penguins, but the penguins were taking the day off.
The Milford Underwater Laboratory is a floating lab that sits next to a steep slope of one of the surrounding mountains, with windows that allow viewing of the local sea life which includes perch, triplefin, horse mussels, feather stars, zoanthids, black and red coral. There are several naturalists on hand who give a tour and answer questions about the site. A unique environment is created in the sound because the large amount of rainfall (7 to 9 meters annually) creates a layer of fresh water floating on top of the saltwater.
As a snack, I had ordered a steak and onion pie from the ship's galley. If you have any non meat-eaters in your group, you may wish to stay clear of them if you order one of these pies. Erin insisted I eat it as far away from her as possible, claiming that the noxious smell of it was going to make her barf.
We also passed beneath Stirling Falls, a 505 foot waterfall. The bow of the boat maneuvers close enough to the fall to allow the person standing on the bow to become thoroughly soaked by the mist. Photographers without underwater gear, keep this in mind. I had heard a rumor that if you can catch a cup of water from the fall, you will be treated to a free shot of your favorite booze. This wasn't the case on our boat, at least not to my knowledge. Maybe this offer is good in the summer only, so the paying customers don't get hypothermia if they get soaked in the process.
After the tour, we headed home and saw our first and last kea, at a turnoff before the climb to the Homer Tunnel. The kea is a large green alpine parrot, infamous for its mischievous behavior. They have been known to peck apart hiking boots, bike tires, car moldings, windshield wipers, and anything else that looks peckable, with their sharp beaks. This particular bird was sitting on the sill of a car door peering through the open window into the passenger's side of a car. When the passenger in the car noticed that she was was nose to beak with the large parrot, she wisely decided to roll up the window. The kea jumped on the roof of the car and hopped about, until some other tourists (Germans, gee, what a surprise!!) enticed it off of the car with some cheese, so they could take pictures of it eating the cheese.
That night we had dinner at the Beefeater Steak House. If you're into medieval weaponry, this is your place. There is quite a variety of it displayed on the walls. Not bad steak either. If you need to use the toilet, be forewarned that you may be locked out of the restauraunt. The toilets are down a hall and the door may lock behind you. Luckily, the door is next to the waiter's station, and a friendly knock should get you back in, assuming you haven't been an obnoxious customer.
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