Gateway to Fiordland

The Canadians were heading to Queenstown, so I offered to drop them off at the bus stop, and save them a 20+ minute walk with their backpacks. From there I headed towards Milford Sound, where I had a boat cruise at 10:30am.

Milford Sound is only 119kms away from Te Anua, but the drive takes from 2 to 2.5 hours. Thankfully it’s a very scenic drive. There were plenty of places to stop along the way, but I wanted to make sure I was at the dock in time, so I headed straight there. Had a short wait at Homer Tunnel, which is a tunnel cut through the mountain,that descends over 1200 feet. It’s also only one way, so the lights at either end change only ever 15 minutes. The roads were pretty clear, since most of the buses don’t get into Milford Sound until noon or so.

Checked in at the boat terminal, and waited for my bus. I bought some two-in-one bug repellent and sunscreen and applied that – mostly for the bugs. New Zealand’s dirty little secret is the sandfly, a persistent tiny fly that also bites and leaves a mark, much like a mosquito. The repellent was keeping them at bay, but others weren’t so lucky.

Milford Sound gets about 6 metres of rainfall per year. They’d been going through a bit of a drought of late, with no rain for five days. The skies were cloudy, but thankfully there was no rain. Hoped to see an abundance of wildlife, but other than some seals and birds, it was pretty tame. You can see dolphins if you’re lucky, and occasionally whales and penguins if you’re in the right season.

Milford Sound, which is actually a fjord, was really quite nice to see. The tour itself was good, although about half an hour shorter than the time allotted in the brochure. I still think we managed to see everything, anyhow.

After the cruise I headed back along Milford Sound road, stopping at a few lookouts along the way. At one lookout, I came across a kea, a large and very social parrot. They’re very curious, and have a love of plastic and rubber, and tend to pick at people’s shoes, but this one wasn’t overly lively. It tried jumping into the camper van of an older German couple, and scared the small boy of a Swiss couple who were actually driving a camper called the Kea.

I stopped at the Chasm next, which was pretty unique looking. Next on the stop was the Mirror Lakes, which were more like ponds then links. On a calm day their reflective powers are a little more powerful, but otherwise it wasn’t a bad place to stop.

Headed back to the hostel and relaxed and read. Had to switch rooms, so I checked into my new room (a single – which was a nice luxury), then cooked some dinner. It was raining, so I joined a few people watching The Ring in the tv lounge. Watched some American Idol after that, followed by House of Wax – which no one managed to see the end of. I was hoping to at least see Paris die, but couldn’t hold out long enough for that.

Tried to book a room in Franz Josef, but my credit card was declined. Confused, I tried to book my flight to the north island, but that too was declined. I tried getting in touch with Mastercard but had no luck – probably because things were closed in Canada. I checked online and everything seemed okay, so I’ll try calling them in the morning.