Aotearoa 7 - Unspoiled Landscape

"He pai rangi tahi" - The beauty of a single day

Jan. 25, 2007: Milford Sound

We had to get up early to drive to Milford Sound. It's about the same latitude as Queenstown, [we crossed and re-crossed 45 deg. Lat.] but there's only one road that goes there (very few roads in New Zealand....). So, instead of going straight across the mountains, we had to drive pretty far south (around Lake Wakatipu), then west a bit, then back up north. Maybe a little inconvenient, but the drive was really beautiful and therefore worth it. :)

We stopped for lunch in a little town called Te Anau. It has this theater that's supposed to have a spectacular film of a helicopter flying over Fiordland - one of the most beautiful areas of NZ, I think. We didn't have time to see it though...

The mountains along the drive were INCREDIBLE and everywhere you looked were crystal clear streams. Again, it reminded me a lot of Lord of the Rings. We stopped at a small waterfall that was really beautiful! We also stopped at a small place called Mirror Lakes. They were more like ponds, not lakes - kind of small. :) We had our first encounter with "sandflies" here. They're nasty little insects kind of like mosquitoes - they bite. (they didn't bite me, but they got Steph and her folks) I read somewhere that in the past the government would punish criminals by sending them to an island infested with sandflies. If the criminal deserved the death penalty, they would be tied to a tree, naked. The sandflies would've cleaned them out in 3 days.

To get to Milford Sound we had to actually drive across/through the mountains, which made for spectacular scenery and windy, dangerous roads. We had to go through one long, dark tunnel (through the mountain!) that was pretty cool - a little over 1 km long. VERY dark - you couldn't see from end to end.

We also saw what I think was a Kea bird at the tunnel. They're allegedly ferocious, with beaks that can tear through a car roof. They let humans get really close to them, though.




MILFORD SOUND...is not really a "sound". It's actually a "fiord", but I forget exactly what the difference is. I think a Fiord is a mountain valley that filled with snow (that turned to water) and a sound is a river bed. Anyway, this Fiord/Sound was filled with freshwater and saltwater. The saltwater from the sea flowed in, but the freshwater from the rain has a lighter density, and therefore stays on top. That gives it a kind of dirty, dark color. That also tricks marine life into thinking it's deeper than it really is, so rare species of coral live closer to the surface. The freshwater is about 2-14 m deep. The freshwater and salt water together go down about 220 meters, even at the edge of the water next to the mountain, so the boat can get right next to the mountains. Our boat went up to one of the smaller waterfalls to get some water for all the passengers.



If you use your imagination, you can see shapes in the mountains: a lion, steps, and kissing turtles. :) It also has one really pointy, easy-to-recognize mountain called Mitre Peak.

There are some gorgeous waterfalls there. There are 2 or 3 perennial waterfalls: Bowen Falls, close to the docks, and Sterling Falls, farther down, which are the result of glacier run-off. The other waterfalls are caused by rain, and therefore aren't always there. 6 days without rain is considered drought here. When we passed by Sterling Falls, the boat took us up right under it so we could get wet.



The Sounds/Fiords in Fiordland all open out into the sea. This one was apparently particularly hard to find, and most explorers missed it when they were exploring the area from the sea. It also has a beach with lots of "greenstone" (jade). The Maori legend is that a man "cut out" the Fiords. He had to leave his 3 wives to do it, and their tears turned into the greenstone. You get the jade by throwing the rocks into the fire, then throwing them into the sea when they're really hot. That will split them open where you can see the inside. The outside isn't very attractive, but I think the jade inside is even more beautiful than the jade you can get here.

There are two kinds of jade: one is harder and darker, and was used mostly for tools and weapons. The other kind is more malleable and translucent, and was used in jewelry and trade. You can still buy lots of jade necklaces, but they're a little pricey.



Also fun, we got to see a bunch of seals. They're all natural in this area - better than a zoo!



The Sound/Fiord opens into the Tasman Sea. From there it's just a 4-day boat ride to Australia/Tasmania....the guide said we had enough fuel, but not enough beds. So....maybe next time. ;)



This was my first encounter with the sea in a long time....and it was just the tip of the iceberg for me...