We lucked out yet again with the weather. We filled the locker and headed out of the motor camp toward Milford Sound. The drive was stunning, the mountains got bigger and there were valley floors with loops flowers in full bloom along beautiful rivers and lakes. As we made our way back the valley the mountains started to get closer in and we entered a pull out to view this stunning view over looking a valley. It is hard to explain how beautiful Milford is in writing and pictures just do not do it justice, the mountains are shear vertical granite slabs covered with vegetation in parts, and exposed rock or covered in snow, on one face there could be five or six waterfalls cascading down the full 3000-5000 foot face to the valley floor, everything is so massive you loose all perspective and feel very small like an ant on the ground.
Once we pulled out of the view point the road droped at about a 10-15% grade, and it is of course curvy and goes into one lane, we have heard that the road can get bottle necked during the summer due to the huge tour busses that make this drive three times a day, good thing we got an early start. Paul and I thought they should let either car or tour busses drive on the road but not both. At the bottom of the grade and as we climb further into another valley most of the vegetation disappears except some flowers and nothing but huge granite mountain sides with glaciers and waterfalls on every face are left to see. As we continue to climb we see Homer tunnel tucked in the end of the valley, it looks so small and flat in the middle of the huge valley. Since it was dug out of a large mountain I guess it would look small. As we entered it got very dark and damp, we found out that Serena's lights barley showed any light (big surpise) the tunnel was very steep down, the road was bumpy with potholes and old pavement, all of this making it hard to tell how steep it was. The tunnel is very rugged and did not look finished like tunnels back home with cemented insides and good lighting. Kasey and I were thrilled once we broke on through to the other side, only to see another extremely steep grade as we traverse down the valley with the granite walls even tighter in to us. This valley was like entering the land of the lost, large mountains with visible glaciers, mist and clouds hiding some tips so they remain a mystery as to how tall they really are, parrots running around the parking lots and mist hanging over the green glacial fed rivers. The road continued through this valley at steep grades till we could see Milford Sound and we popped right out at the end of the sound, which is really a fiord as we learned (sound = flooded river valley, fiord = flooded glacial carved valley) the early english settlers had mis named the sounds.
I expected a small town like Sisters Oregon at Milford since it is such a destination, but all it was, was a cafe, parking lot, lodge, six hundred and fifty million sand flies and the boat terminal with a huge tour checkin/waiting area. I guess it is nice to keep it simple and not have a town built up around it. The utter shock came to us as we opened the doors and were instantly swarmed by millions of sandfly's! There are sandfly's everywhere but this was by far the worst we had ever seen! If you stood still for just a second thousands would land on you, crawl up your nose, and in your ears! It was so gross, we sprayed every inch of our selves with bug spray and they still swarmed! We ran into the cafe and ordered a sandwich while we waited to board our boat. Ben showed us all how to eat a healthy breakfast by devouring a mince and cheese pie then washing it down with a magnum ice cream bar and it was only 9 am!
With a few minutes to board, we walked quickly to the terminal through hordes of flies and filed on to the front observation deck of the boat. As we pulled out onto the sounds the wind picked up and the sandflies disappeared. We found our spot on the front of the forward deck and everyone just started pointing and taking pictures, no mater where we turned there were endless amazing views, huge mountain cliffs rising vertically over a mile out of the water, waterfalls, trees and tree slides. At one point while as we were sitting about 30 feet off the edge of land looking at a 300 foot waterfall the captain explained that the water depth was over 1000 feet deep below us so it was no problem to steer our 60 foot boat within a couple feet of shore, the cliffs continued vertically down under the water. The entire cruise was filled with one site after another, we went right under several waterfalls, saw young male seals battling on the rocks and got to watch two Fiordland Crested penguins hop along and dive into the water, slipping on the rocks and falling over on their way. We were all in amazement the entire 2.5 hour cruise.
Once we were all back on land and loaded in Serena we headed out, she chugged slowly but surely up out of the valley, down the other side and back to our motor camp to pick up the packs and head north. 5 hours later after passing over the highest highway in NZ we passed through Wenaka a really cool looking mountain town with tons of cafes, bars and restaurants that were crawling with people. After debating on staying for the night we decided to go the cheaper route and headed to a DOC camp. Once at the camp we set up and had fun skipping rocks before making dinner. At dinner a nice couple from Solvakia invited us to share their table for dinner. We gladly accepted and began to talk while sharing our whiskey with them and them sharing Fernet 8000 a Solvakian drink with us. They explained that they had just finished an orienteering competition around Christchurch showing us their map and talking about how they had to run through a bunch of pasture land jumping electric fences to reach the points. They were traveling for a little while before heading home and were heading north to fly out of Aukland, they made us feel lucky because they had hit bad weather in Fjordland with nothing but rain and our trip had been so nice. After a little while a half drunk half crazy Kiwi and his dog Sam came over and joined in the conversation telling us about hunting pigs and how his dog should be driving because he was half drunk, we all half chuckled while thanking god we were not on the road with this guy. The conversation continued with Sam running around checking things out then Kasey commented that Sam had just pissed on my backpack, I went over to wipe it off and throw it in the car expecting the guy might call his dog and put him on a lease but he just laughed. A minute later Sam decided to piss on our tent which the crazy kiwi thought was great and just kept on laughing and carrying on not trying to stop his dog. We let him know this was not funny and we were not amused that we had pee on our home, he right away was like "what you don't like dogs" to which we answered "we just don't like them pissing all over our stuff". This made him mad and he left mumbling something, glad he was gone we continued our conversation with the Solvokians then when time for bed we each took weapons to our tents for protection from the crazy kiwi.
Shabree and I quickly fell asleep still tired from the tramp while the others packed in Ben's tent to have a night cap.
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