NZ Adventures #12: When a Sound is Really a Fjord, Who Cares?

Earth Date:  Sunday, November 25, 2018

Driving through cascade-tastic valleys?
Yeah. Whatever.

It's Milford Sound Day!  It really should become an official holiday.  Not sure how Hallmark would work with that one, and while I want everyone to marvel in the majesty of Milford, I don't want them to on the same day.  It's a pickle.

Anyways, it's one of the places I've been jonesing to see, but it's also a really long day of driving, and we know how Jayme's felt about driving.  Not that I blame him.  Plus, he's a tough customer and is just so-so intrigued.  I'm hoping the Sound will wow him.

We have a tour booked at 12:45pm, so we head out early for an almost four hour drive to Piopiotahi, aka Milford Sound.

To the Sound that's really a fjord.  But really, it's so beautiful, who cares.  Well, maybe the marine biologist people, but the regular ol' tourist persons like us don't really care.  We just want to ooo and ahh, and gaze up in awe at the majestic heights and spritely waterfalls.

Milford Sound is a fjord in Fiordland National Park.

- A sound is a large ocean inlet.
- A fjord is a narrow ocean channel forged by the formation and recession of glaciers characterized by steep, vertical walls and a flat ocean floor.

We didn't get a close look at the ocean floor, but we can validate that the valley walls were pretty steep and vertical.  Steep, vertical and majestic.  Really, majestic is the best word for a place like Milford Sound.

The Drive

But first, the journey is it's own kind of majestic...

To get to Milford Sound, we drove through lovely pastures, foot hills, beech forest and finally up into cascade-tastic valleys of waterfalls to Homer tunnel and out the other side to more beautiful scenery.

Homer Tunnel is a 1.2km pass through the Darran mountain range.  It was started in 1935 and completed in 1954.  Thank you to the hard working folk who blasted through the range to open up the road to Milford.

It's one-lane, so we lined up with all the other rides to wait our turn.  Which really just offered a nice stretch-your-legs break and opportunity to capture the falls vaulting down the valley walls.

The drive to the Sound is a funny area.  You're driving through craggy wilderness with a line of cars, then all the sudden parking!  NZ has carved out a few cramped parking spaces and a commercial boat dock for the five or so tourist companies offering tours of the Sound.  And that's pretty much it.  Beauty + tourist trap boat docks.

Milford Sound

But it's really all about this...

The cruise was awesome, awe-inspiring and wonderful.  They take you right under some of the wispy falls.  They also offer factoids about the sights.  But you know how pilots often sound during their flight announcements -- like Charlie Brown's teacher?  That's about what the Captain sounded like.  But I'm sure the info was helpful and fascinating.
















Seal Rock is a fave basking zone for fur seals, and this day they were out in full force enjoying the sunshine.

Lady Bowen Falls

The two permanent falls are Lady Bowen Falls and Stirling Falls.

Lady Bowen Falls is fed by Bowen River which flows through the northern Fiordlands and drops 531 feet into the Sound.  A cool factoid:  the Falls provides hydroelectric power for the tiny Milford Sound settlement.

Stirling Falls leaps off a valley between the Lion and Elephant Mountains.

The other falls find their ways down the cliffs shifting into new patterns as they make new paths.

Stirling Falls

Those wispy falls over the lovely striations in the cliff face... /sigh

The cruise was an hour and 45 minutes; the drive was four hours.  It was worth it:

I hope Grumpy, I mean Jayme, also agrees.

Pictures don't do Milford Sound one bit of justice.  God did a really good thing when he forged this place. 

Goodbye Milford Sound/Fjord.  You are lovely.














Any sights along the way?  Sure, but we are not stopping.  Nope.  We were on a mission to and from Milford Sound.  I complained, "but you said we could stop on the way back." "What I said was 'that the sights would be there on the way back.'"  Devious semanticist.

Whatever.  I will take pictures.

Lovely views along Hwy 94/Te Anau Milford Hwy

Tomorrow, we are headed to Christchurch to see Jeremy and Matt, leaving one final episode.