Fiordland - South Island, New Zealand
01/24/2005 - 01/24/2005
Leaving Te Anau to head north to Milford sound, we get a great view of the lake Te Anau and the surrounding mountains. This area of Fiordland is still desolate and beautiful, even though there are some signs of development.
Driving up the valley toward Milford Sound and the Routeburn track. This valley served as the backdrop for one of the sets in the Lord of the Rings movie. The Earl mountains are on the left and the Ailsa mountains are on the right.
A zoomed-in view down the valley toward the Humbolt mountains. A tunnel takes us through this mountain range and into the Milford Sound valley. As the crow flies, Queenstown is only a short flight east from Milford, but the trip takes several hours by tour bus to circumvent these mountain ranges.
First stop, the Routeburn Track. The entire track is a 3-4 day tramp. We just do a short hike up to Key Summit at the 3000 ft elevation. From there, we hope to get some spectacular views of the surrounding Humboldt mountains.
Trips & Tramps
In the spirit of getting a little exercise and engaging with a smaller tour group, we bought tickets for the "Big Day Out" with an outfit called "Trips & Tramps". Tramping is Kiwi for "hiking" and implies nothing about the quality of people on the trips. We arranged for an 8 AM pick-up directly from our motel. Dave (our tour guide) and two Canadians from Saskatchewan were our company for the entire day.
Dave worked many years for the road-building company, so we got the full scoop on the roads, when and how they were built, how long it took, and the history of roadside attractions. Surprisingly, the 145 mile long paved road to Milford (from Te Anau) is a fairly new feature, and the 3/4 mile long Homer tunnel through the mountains was started in 1935 -- but was not finished until 1953!
First, we drive north to the trail head of the Routeburn Track -- one of the popular tracks (trails) that trampers (hikers) tramp (hike) on every season. The entire Routeburn Track is a 3-4 day hike. We explore only the first few kilometers of the track for a two hour tramp up and about an hour down. The summit elevation is around 3000 feet. Our destination will be Key Summit, where we hope to be treated to some awesome views of the surrounding mountains and valleys.
Tramping up the Routeburn toward Key Summit. The fog does not bode well for great views. Look at how nice the trail is.
The primordial forest. Eerie, dark, foggy, damp, cool. Another great track takes us into the thick, native New Zealand bush.
Interesting new plants and ferns. We saw some orchids, but they were so small and green we didn't think anyone would believe they were orchids, so here's the usual fern picture.
A beautiful creek splashes down the mountain side.
Bridal Veil waterfalls -- on the first few km's of the track.
Robin enjoys the morning hike into the dense, dark forest. We estimate the climb to be about 3 miles uphill (about 1400 feet elevation climb from the base to Key Summit at 3000 ft).
Robin and Dave the tour guide try to catch a glimpse of the surrounding mountains when they peek out of the clouds.
This was about as good as the views got. Just a quick peek at a peak of the Humboldt mountains.
Dave readies morning tea at the top of Key Summit. A spot of tea and a few bikkies (cookies) pump up the blood sugar in readiness for the trip back down the mountain.
Onward and upward -- past the divide and onward to the Homer tunnel. We'll take the tunnel through the mountain pass, then emerge over the hill and on the way to Milford Sound.
We arrived 10 minutes before the last tour boat of the day. All these buses were long gone by the time we returned from our Sound cruise. To avoid the crowds, take smaller tours and take afternoon boat tours.
The first view of the sound from the Milford wharf landing reveals steep dramatic mountains diving into the deep dark water of Milford Sound. The water off Mitre Peak is 875 ft deep.
The Mitre Peak Cruises boat holds up to 100 people easily, but they limit their tours to only 22 people! We had the boat almost to ourselves and really enjoyed our time on the sound.
Bowen Falls is the first waterfall on the tour of Milford Sound. Just after leaving the Milford wharf (tour boat dock), these falls becomes visible around the corner.
Kayakers out for a day on the sound return to the ferry landing by sailing their kayaks. Small chutes connected to paddles and carried in tandem across two kayaks give a fast ride back to the dock.
We quickly discovered a nook in the front window of the cruise boat and claimed the bench seat as our outpost. During the misty-gloomy parts, we snuggled below. When the sun came out and it warmed up a little, we ventured out onto the boat's foredeck.
The nice boat combined with the small number of people left us with a very favorable impression of Milford Sound. Other travelers that sat for eight hours on buses to and from Queenstown that had packed like sardines onto the larger boats had a less-than-favorable experience The weather is also a huge variable and we were lucky to get a beautiful day. Although cloudy, the clouds cleared enough to give us a feel for the incredible natural beauty of the Sound.
Another picture of Duncan. He's getting in more shots these days. Mitre Peak is in the background.
A zoomed-in view of Bowen falls.
This excellent shot of a waterfall coming out of Robin's head is another example of Duncan's photographic talent.
Mitre Peak cleared from the clouds and captured the afternoon sunlight. When huge boats would pass at the base, they appear as tiny specs in the water. Mitre Peak is over 5500 feet tall. It is a dramatic and impressive mountain even without the beauty of the sound.
Another Seal Rock. This one we came very close to. Maybe a bit too close. And downwind at that. Peeee-U.
Another great view out of Milford Sound, with Mitre Peak on the left. The marine layer and fog awaits at the entrance, but inside the sound we were treated to sunshine and some excellent vistas.
From across the sound, we could see Stirling Falls, but worried that by the time we got there it might be enveloped in clouds.
No worries. Stirling Falls was one of the waterfall highlights of the trip.
Looking to the north and up the center of the sound, this steep mountain protects the only small anchorage in the sound at Harrison Cove.
A deep valley just behind Harrison Cove reveals the 6600 ft high side of Mt Pembroke still covered with snow.
Clear, clouds, clear, clouds. Out in the entrance of the sound it got a bit cloudy and dismal. The play of light and clouds was amazing.
One of the peaks in the sound dwarfs the passing tour boats.
Time to cruise back into the sound and back to the wharf. Duncan has taken over 150 pictures and filled the 1GB card in his Canon 10D. The small Canon S300 with the 256MB card is also full, but luckily he had another 128MB card!
Robin and Duncan in Milford Sound. Soon we will leave Fiordland, but with some exercise and great memories.
Back on land and driving back up the chasm toward the tunnel, we stopped at the Cleddau river which runs alongside the road into Milford.
Although the river looks inviting, the temperature is just above freezing. The water is clear, cold, fresh, and shines turquoise in the afternoon sun. Excellent for drinking, but not for swimming.
Snowmelt is still feeding the Cleddau and the sound. Some of the mountains near Milford exceed 9000 ft elevation. Plenty of elevation to keep them snow-capped all summer.
This Bell Bird takes a rest on a stalk of flax at Mirror Lake. Flax was used in many applications by the Maori and subsequently by the Europeans to make paper and fabrics.
On the way back to Te Anau, we stopped to take a look down into the Hollyford Valley.
This concludes another excellent day trip in Fiordland. We were delighted to have had a day with some sunshine. Although the sound was beautiful even in clouds, the sun increased the beauty-factor significantly.
One of the first things we did was start comparing our trips into the two sounds (Doubtful and Milford) in an attempt to determine which sound we enjoyed most. Bottom line: we like them both equally -- but each for different reasons.
If our day in Doubtful had been sunny and mild, we might have liked it more than Milford. Milford is very popular and therefore more crowded and has that touristy feel. Doubtful is remote and quiet and less touristy (but it's also harder to get to). Milford had higher mountains and the scenery of the sound just seemed more dramatic. Again, some of that could be due to the great weather.
Dave (our tour guide), describes the Hollyford Valley and surrounding mountains to Ron and Elsa-Marie (Saskatchewan, CAN), and to Robin.
We really liked the small personal tour atmosphere offered by Trips and Tramps. We also enjoyed the ability and willingness to stop frequently to stretch our legs, enjoy the scenery, or take pictures. If there were already other tour buses at a stop, we'd pass by, just to stop later in the day when all the tour buses had disappeared back to Queenstown.
By arriving in Milford at 1:50 PM, we caught the last Mitre Peak tour boat of the day. Many of the boats had already left the sound and many of the buses had already left. This was nice because we felt we had the sound to ourselves.
Bottom line is that if you can explore both sounds on nice days -- do it. If you can only do one, do Milford if you want natural beauty (but late in the day and from Te Anau). Or, if you prefer sea life and remote wilderness, go to Doubtful Sound. If you catch Doubtful on a clear day, it may exceed the beauty of Milford on a cloudy day. Either way, we agreed this has been the most spectacular mountain scenery of the trip.