Day16: Thursday, March 6, Milford Sound

Milford Sound looking back toward the bay.

On Thursday we went down to Milford Sound and cruised the sound – which, I learned, is technically a fjord and not a sound.

The drive down took five hours, but almost half of that was spent on the last 112 km (what would normally be just over an hour). The sound is a tourist attraction because you have long inlets of water flanked by towering mountains; the road winds along and over these mountains. There were a number of one-lane bridges, which we had seen before (you just yield and take turns), but there were also stretches of road where it narrowed such that they got rid of the lane divider. That was sort of a free-for-all.

Australia's maritime flag has a red background, but apparently NZ doesn't have a different maritime flag.

The sound itself was nice, but I didn’t find it stunningly beautiful. (If you read the quotes from the cruise brochures you would think I must be defective in some way.) It was just tall, steep hills overgrown with scrubs, mosses, and trees clinging to pockets of soil. It was like a lot of valleys we have driven through here in NZ except we were on water. I do, however, think it was impressive and imposing. Pictures of the mountains are interesting, but without any scale they are only that. If you see one with a boat in it, you realize that the two-story boat is a like an ocean tuna next to a whale – the big dwarfed by the massive. The sun shining on the hills heats them, which in turn heats the air standing on the mountains. This hot air rises and draws cold air in from the sound’s mouth. Because it is so long (so lots of hot air needs replacing) and so narrow (so there is little space for the air to flow) they have gale-force “afternoon breezes.” At one point I walked along the side of the boat tilted forward about 30 degrees, and at another point I got pinned against the railing by a gust. I can’t remember being in natural winds that fast – only when sticking my head out of a car window… or when jetboating. We saw one waterfall that seemed to lose half of its water at one point to wind.

I should add that we went on a clear day. Milford Sound gets rain about 180 days/year, and everyone said that we should go rain or shine. On a clear day you get our view, and on a rainy day the sides of the mountains turn into thousands of small waterfalls. Also, Milford Sound is home to a lot of sea life that is usually only found in deeper waters. The fresh water from the rains and the river forms a layer over the salt water; the fresh water is also dark because of nutrients and tannins it picks up along the way. The result is that very little light gets to the salt water layer, and thus deep water creatures feel at home. Unfortunately we didn’t see Moby Dick.

Three of our travel companions.

Near the mouth of the ford we were escorted by six or seven bottlenose dolphins, which was rare according to the person providing commentary. It really was fun to watch them swim right under the bow and jump around. One or two swam on their side for a while; we later learned that they do this to look up at us. I also learned that they swim just in front of the bow of boats in order to ride the pressure wave created by the boat, which makes a lot of sense. I knew it happened, but I had never heard an explanation.

The view down the valley near the end of the day.

We were on the last cruise of the day, which meant we had two options. Option one was to sprint to the car and start driving back so that we weren’t stuck behind tour buses on the windy roads. The other option was to eat dinner there at the sound and let the traffic clear out before we headed back. We decided to hang around and were rewarded with some great views of the sun descending behind the rim of the sound; we also had the place to ourselves, so it was nice and peaceful. William overheard someone in the restaurant ask how much gas it took to get back to Te Anau (the closest gas stop) – they were evidently worried about their gas situation. On the drive back we stopped at regular intervals along the way to get out and admire the surroundings, and consequently we passed that couple about four times on the way back. They must have decided that they were going to conserve gas by driving no faster than 65 kph (about 40 mph).

Note my spiffy "I'm a tourist!" t-shirt from Australia.

We also had our first battle with sand flies. I don’t think there are any mosquitoes in New Zealand (or they haven’t found us yet), but the sand flies stand in for them. These gnat-sized buggers aren’t as subtle as mosquitoes; you definitely feel it when they bite you. They are like mosquitoes in their ability to find you somehow, so the longer you are in one place the more sand flies you will have flying in a cloud around you. After each stop we spent the next five minutes on the road killing the sand flies that had hitched a ride. I was an ace after two stops.

The motel we stayed in that night had a façade that made it look like a gold rush town. Instead of staying in room four, you stayed in “Bill’s Dry Goods.” Fun idea, but I didn’t think the place was that great.