This Sound's Like a Fjord
30th April, Milford Sound, New Zealand
We awoke at 7am to the sound of engines very near the camper van. The spot we'd chosen last night (not a holiday park) was a layby with a loop circuit just off a main road and it didn't look like anyone would bother us or move us along. Hearing that engine, though, I wondered if it was the best spot. As I pulled the curtain back to the driver's compartment, I found myself staring straight at the grill of a large truck and panicked, thinking that we were blocking the way. However, he had just parked up in front of us and appeared to be busy with something. The tin shack next to our van evidently housed some kind of pump, as he reeled out a hosepipe and began washing off the back of his truck. Then it became clear where we had stopped: this was a facility for drivers to clear out their animal trucks. Imagine 30-40 sheep in the back, tramping about in their own mess. Occassionally you'd want to give the truck a rinse out, wouldn't you? As we got the van ready for more driving, I noticed a rank smell in the air that I'd somehow missed the evening before. We were underway in no time!
The Milford Road
We still had roughly 150kms until Milford Sound, and passed through Te Anau and Te Anau Downs, then the scenery just got more spectacular as we neared our target. There was a slightly hair-raising experience as we went through Homer Tunnel (a tunnel carved right through the mountain range at a fairly steep downhill gradient). Even with my headlights on and in a low gear I felt like a kid sitting on a runaway go-kart careering down the village's steepest hill! We came through the other side unscathed, negotiated some hairpin bends down to flatter ground and were soon in Milford Sound. Ironically, the route from Glenorchy totalled about 350kms, yet on the map Glenorchy and Milford are just 40kms apart. When we arrived in Queenstown a few days back we'd crossed down into the 45th parallel (south), and today we were back in the 44th again. It seemed like a ludicrous detour, but unless you plan on flying or cruising down the west coast there's no other option. Actually, that's not totally correct - you could hike from Glenorchy to Milford, but I was talking about what most 'normal' people would do for a spot of sight-seeing ;-)
Milford Sound - Actually it's a Fjord
Yes, this is true. It was incorrectly named as a 'sound', but Milford is definitely a fjord, the result of millenia of glacial wear and tear.
Milford Sound. I mean fjord.
Once the huge glacier receeded at the end of the last ice age, the rising seas back-flooded the vast space left. The waters now are very calm, as the millions of tonnes of rocks dragged along by the glacier were left at the mouth of the glacier, creating a natural breakwall.
The area also receives a very high rainfall - about 7-9 metres per year, and, combined with the calm waters and surrounding vegetation a very interesting effect takes place. A layer of freshwater that is heavily coloured by the vegetation sits on top of the salt water, creating a dark and still environment for marine life. Because of this, Milford Sound has naturally occurring marine life that is normall seen at much lower depths. As part of the 3-hour cruise that we booked, we visited an underwater observatory - Milford Deep - a cylindrical chamber that bobs around in the water, tethered to the granit banks. From there (10 metres under the surface) we could see black coral which, we were informed, is not normally seen anywhere above 70 metres. Ironically, one of the conditions that enable this - the darkness caused by the dark freshwater - was not present today. Recent winds and a lack of rainfall had caused the fresh water layer to be blown away, and so the lighting was excelent. Well, for us it was, but not the coral!
Black coral, growing at 10 metres depth in Milford Sound. Yes, I know that
it's white. Blame the scientists! (In fact, it's not actually coral, so
the name's doubly wrong ... but that's another story).
Our cruise took us on a fairly straightforward route down towards the mouth of the fjord, where Milford Sound meets the Tasman Sea. The rain held off for yet another day here, with only a few spots during the course of a few minutes. I couldn't help but think that, overall, we have been incredibly lucky with the New Zealand weather. Here we were in a place that receives so much rain (more than 200 days a year) but the worst we got was a light drizzle and some cloud. Heck, I got wetter from the boat's close-up inspection of Stirling Falls (three times the height of Niagara Falls, but about as thin and insignificant as my wallet)!
Basking in the refreshing spray from Stirling Falls.
Milford Sound is a beautiful location and one that anyone visiting New Zealand should try to fit in. One word of advice to anyone planning such a trip: fill up with petrol at Te Anau! There are no petrol stations between Te Anau and Milford, and it's a 150km round trip. Luckily, we'd filled up at Queenstown the day before, and the fuel tank on our hired van is a decent size, but it would be so easy to get caught short on the Milford Road.
We headed back to Te Anau for civilisation, a powered camp site free of drivers hosing off sheep sh*t and a nice cup of tea.
Milford Sound - as the day comes to an end and Ian starts whacking a B&W
filter on the digi camera.
