Tara and I recently visited Milford Sound (see recent pictures) for the weekend. Google maps estimated travel time at three hours and twenty-four minute from Invercargill, but was uncharacteristically off by over half an hour. Tara drove us up through a very pretty part of the country. We saw the ocean, lakes, rivers and mountains, but waited until the return trip to take most of the pictures on the way. Thanks to some good driving and an hour of time for contingencies, we arrived with five to ten minutes until the cruise ship boarded.
Fortunately for us, the weather report was not quite right. It rained fairly little during the day on Saturday and not at all on Sunday. Going into Milford Sound we saw snow on the ground, even though this month marks the beginning of summer as reckoned by most n New Zealand. We had to pass through a one-lane tunnel. The signal is on from nine a.m. until six p.m. (which meant that we had to play chicken in an over one kilometer tunnel to leave early on Sunday). Many parts of the road narrow to one lane including most bridges. Many visitors come to this area and tragically some get disoriented and drive on the wrong side of the road. To lessen this, the lanes are marked with arrows and signs remind people to keep left.
We took an almost three-hour cruise (including a stop at a floating nature center) over lunch. There was a nice buffet on board at the start of the trip. I liked the lamb sausage. We get more lamb here than we did in the USA. Milford Sound gets 700 cm. (seven meters) of rainfall a year, but it had been relatively dry, so there were fewer waterfalls in view. The wind picked up and limited how far we could go. I have yet to see penguins,but two popped up briefly. Most left about a week earlier. The mountains and waterfalls were beautiful- see pictures as words are inadequate.
We stayed overnight at Milford Lodge. We had to book three weeks ahead. It was kind of like camping. There were shared bathrooms with showers at the end of a covered walkway. The rooms were very basic, clean and comfortable. There is a kitchen and small store on site. To get a prepared meal, we went up the road to the Blue Duck pub which serves meals from 5 p.m. until 9 p.m. I had the special...wait for it...lamb burger and tomato basil soup with a draft Monteith's original. They even had ESPN via satellite- talk about roughing it. With no T.V., we hit the hay at seven p.m. We were awakened by heavy rains and wind that shook the wooden floors.
Sunday was cool and brisk. The sky was blue. We awoke early and made our way home.
Suggestions if you go to Milford Sound:
Bug repellant- little black bugs bite (bites itch for days)
Jacket and rain gear
Credit card or cash- debit cards do not work
A chilly bin (cooler) to bring some food along
Camera (I like to have a waterproof camera, and carry a disposable for this purpose)
Drive carefully and allow extra time (traffic in some places, photo stops)
Good walking shoes- I love my Keen sandals, waterproof with good grip and comfortable from the get go
Coming home, we stopped to walk a little over an hour on the Kepler Trek. The whole trek is over 60 km. New Zealand has numerous paths to hike on and we are just starting to take advantage of them. I got a book to help me identify native and indigenous birds. It is great to get close enough for a good photo, or even better, video with song. I'm not great at this yet, but it is funny to know a bird's name, sometimes its song and even behavior/personality.
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