Today was our big excursion to Milford Sound / Piopiotahi. We were up and at breakfast at 7am, so that we’d be ready for our pickup from the bnb at 8am.
Chatted at breakfast with another couple staying at the bnb. They were also going to Milford Sound, but with a different operator. We had booked ours through the bnb. Sarah (our host) knows just about everyone in town so we figured she knew the best tour, and also could help in case of any issues.
Trips & Tramps picked us up a little after 8am. We were the last pickup on the way out of town so that worked well for us, avoiding the milk run.
The driver was really friendly and had excellent commentary along the two hour drive along the Milford Highway. We stopped at a couple lookouts and also a short walk at Mirror Lakes. Passed over the Divide, one of the three east-west passes in the Southern Alps.
Most interesting was the the Homer Tunnel, a 1.2km single lane tunnel. The weather is quite often different on either side. It’s also part of a
17km stretch prone to avalanches. They close the highway and trigger the snow a few times per winter.
I’m glad we had a driver as we pulled into the ferry terminal. There’s all kinds of signage for parking of various sorts. Our approach was easy - our driver dropped us off at the front door.
We got our boarding passes and lined up at dock 4 to board. There’s lots of sand flies here, the worst area we’ve seen so far. Heather had picked up some bug repellent at Pancake Rocks which is really effective against sand flies.
We rushed on board our catamaran after they opened the gates, following the drivers advice to sit on the port side. The boats stick to the left side as go down and up the sound (similar to driving on the left) so the views are better on port. There was only about 30 or so of us on board, so there was lots of room for everyone.
We ended up spending almost all of two hour boat ride out on the lower deck, sheltered from rain by the upper deck.
It was really cloudy and occasionally rainy the whole excursion, so we didn’t get to see the tops of the peaks, but it was still very impressive to see. It took about an hour to get to the Tasman Sea, where it got very choppy and we quickly turned around. Depending on the weather it’s possible to go further out to sea and see how the sound remained unknown to Europeans for so long.
We also stopped for seals, dolphins and some waterfalls. On the way back the captain eased near a waterfall. Heather and I stayed inside for this, but other folks remained on deck. The spray was like being in a car wash, it was so powerful. (A couple days later we were chatting with folks who went the day after us, and cause it hadn’t rained that day, the waterfall was just a whisper).
We got back to the ferry and boarded our bus for the journey back home. We stopped for a couple little walks, including Lake Gunn (with 500-year old beech trees) and Lake Mistletoe.
We were dropped off back at our bnb around 5pm. The excursion makes for a long day but it’s well worth the trip, one of the highlights of New Zealand.
We showered and went for dinner at The Fat Duck. It was really good. We booked there for Sunday night as the place we originally had booked is now closed Sundays.
No comments:
Post a Comment