MILFORD SOUND

THURSDAY 5th MAY

  I woke up about 8.00am - the damned alarm didn't go off so I'm going to have to rely on waking up myself.  Anyway I looked out and the clouds had lifted.  I got dressed and went out to savour the sunshine, and lo and behold we were surrounded by mountains!

  I was picked up promptly at 9.30am and we drove around and picked up a few fellow travellers before being deposited at the Real Journeys Offices.  The coach, specifically designed for sight seeing with seats angled towards the windows and partially glazed roof.  We set off following the shore line of Lake Te Anau.  It has three spurs in the shape of an 'E' backwards.  We stopped several times enroute to take in the sights and/or have a pee break!  Our first stop took in a spot where the mountains were reflected in the still waters below.

We drove slowly past the Christie Falls albeit we didn't stop there.

We then started climbing the Milford Road until we reached the Homer Pass.  This has been build through the sheer face of the Divide.  The road had been built up to this point by 1934.  Work on the Homer Tunnel began in July of the following year.  Work stopped on it during the war and it was finally completed in 1953 and opened the following year.  It is 1.2Km long and has a 1:10 gradient sloping towards Milford. 

 

Once through the tunnel we were on our way down to Milford Sound.  On the way the driver dropped us off

at the Chasm where there is a fifteen minutes walk to see the waters coming down the mountain and sculpting the stones enroute.  There was also the rainforest surrounding with all the various varieties of fern in it to see and admire.

  Milford Sound was first discovered by by some of the early sealers, one of whom was Captain John Grono who hailed from Milford Haven!  Hence Milford Sound, which is in fact incorrectly named as it is not a sound at all but a a fjord.  However at the time the locals had little knowledge of the Norwegian language, albeit they are now keen to let you know that they realise that a mistake was made.  Milford Sound was formed by a glacier, hence the steep slopes of the mountains coming down to the water.  The Welsh influence is further seen in the Cleddau River which plunges through a narrow chasm 22m deep at the Upper Falls. The area was permanently settled in the 1870's with the Scotsman David Sutherland establishing the City of Milford.

  The water in Milford Sound has a layer of some 2-3" of fresh water that comes pouring down from the mountains.  The average rain fall here is 6m/year and it rains every 2 out of 3 days.  The water is stained the colour of weak tea by the tannin and other organic matters in the forests that line the mountain slopes.  This fresh water "lens" because of its discolouration, acts as a filter and as a result much less light penetrates the water.  Thus at a depth of 10' the light is equivalent to that found at 70' in the open sea.  Thus a lot of the dark-adapted marine life can live much closer to the surface in the Sound.

  The Sound is home for the Fiordland Crested Penguins as well as Blue Penguins.  There are Bottlenosed Dolphins which were seen over the last few days but failed to appear today, but the fur seals which did.

  The trip took us to the Tasman Sea at the end of the Sound a mere 1000Km or so from the Australian coast line. On the way we saw Mitre Peak (Rahotu), so named because it resembles a bishop's mitre.  It is 1682m tall and is believed to be the tallest mountain in the world to rise directly out of the sea.   However the highst mountain adjoining Milton Sound is Mt. Pembroke which boasts a height of 2014m.  A lighthouse on the lefthand side at St Anne's Point dates back to the late 1800's.

The best known falls in Milford Sound are the Stirling Falls, named after Captain Sterling of HMS Clio.  Our skipper guided the bow (front) of the ship right under the falls, promising that the water would knock ten years of a woman's age and regenerate hair growth in bald men.  I happened to be in the bow when this was all happening, fortunately with my waterproof jacket on, as the waterfall suddenly hit the deck and cascaded in all directions.  I was soaked!  (It doesn't seem to have made much difference to my hair!).

We returned back to Milford along the other side of the Sound and caught our bus back to Te Anau passing the Murchison Mountains which are home for the rare native takahe bird.  Then it was back through the Divide via the Homer Tunnel, this time it was up the 1:10 incline, much harder work for the bus!  All in all it was a great day with some fabulous sights engraved in the memory.