Sat, Dec 21 - Milford Sound

We awoke to solid rain and I made a breakfast of fried eggs and tomatoes  with bacon and toast.  We had a reservation on the Mitre Peak boat exploring Milford Sound leaving at 3 PM.  We wanted to bird on the 2 hour drive up there, but with the rain there was no point in leaving early so we relaxed a bit and left at 10:30 forgetting several key items in our leisureliness - such as hat, map book, etc.!

Hilary drove us north from Te Anau along the lake of the same name.  Suddenly Bob spotted a tern flying by and announced his fiftieth life bird of the trip - the Black-fronted Tern!!  He didn’t have a great view of it but there’s only one tern here, so no worries!

 

After 30 minutes we entered Fiordland National Park, a vast wilderness of forest and tall mountains sliced up by fiords that cut deeply into the land.  We had read that after a rain (this area gets ~280” of rain a year!) there are waterfalls everywhere and we were amazed at the spider web of water coursing down the almost vertical rock faces!  The rain eased up as we reached 2500’ elevation and entered a one-lane tunnel that cuts a kilometer through the rock.  The method for avoiding on-coming traffic seemed haphazard at best and we were relieved to exit the tunnel and start descending to sea level and the boat docks at the head of Milford Sound. 

Rain-caused waterfalls

 Most of the tourists arrive on buses from Queenstown - a 13-hour round trip including the boat ride!- and many busses are timed to arrive for the 1 PM sailings which is why we booked ours at 3 PM when the area would be a little less crowded.

Weka

We parked and got sandwiches at the Blue Duck Café and then took a walk through the surrounding woodland.  Fortunately, we were well dressed with long underwear, scarves and hats  as it was cold and the wind was howling though the sky was brightening.  We finally boarded our vessel which is one of the smaller ones and took off under partly cloudy skies.  We could see that the waterfalls were much sparser now that the rain had ceased, although there were still plenty of permanent ones pouring water into the sound.  We cruised along the south edge of the sound, viewing colonies of Fur Seals, but not, unfortunately, the Fiordland Crested Penguin which had, as we had been told a few days earlier, gone out to sea to fatten up after nesting - apparently they all check their calendars and take off on December 8!  We had hoped that as we were further south we might see a few laggards, but they had all gone.

Leaving the docks

We reached the mouth of the sound and turned around in the rising swells of the Tasman Sea just past Anita Bay and did spot an Albatross though it was difficult to determine which one. The boat returned following the sound’s north coast.   At one point the captain took our boat right into a waterfall and soaked the  passengers who stubbornly had remained on deck!

Into the waterfall!

We got back to port at 5 and as we departed the boat it started to rain lightly once again so we were quite damp when we got back to the car.  Hil drove us home, we dumped our stuff and drove downtown for a good meal at the Fat Duck restaurant:  Lamb shank for RR, Lamb Salad for Hil and gnocchi on pumpkin puree with roasted veggies for me.  Pavlova (meringue with ice cream and fruit) and a chocolate volcano cake for dessert.