We all slept in until after 8 this morning. Must have been that we were in the forest. We headed off towards Milford Sound before breakfast and ate a few kilometres down the road at another camping spot which was in open country a few kilometres down the road. We even had a picnic table to eat at.
The drive to Milford Sound is a pretty one, with lots of spots to stop and "smell the roses". The only dampener on events was that it is starting to rain again. I guess not all that surprising seeing that it rains 182 days of the year (6,813mm) at Milford Sound. Mirror Lakes was a pretty spot, as was the Chasm (a 15 minute walk away from the road). Between the two we passed through a very long tunnel (one way - operated by traffic lights, fortunately).
 |
| Mirror Lakes |
 |
| Homer Tunnel |
 |
| The Chasm |
We arrived at Milford Sound about 12:30 and did a recce before booking in at the Motorhome section of the Milford Lodge (the only accommodation offered at Milford Sound- and you could tell, at over $80 for a powered site for the night). We had coffees and hot chocolates at the lodge before sorting out “supplies” for the trip on the Sound that afternoon.
We drove to the car park (a couple of kilometres away) and made the 300m walk in the rain to the information centre, with plenty of time to spare as we thought we may do some souvenir hunting. No souvenir shop - what a surprise!! We did, however, get a poncho for Nate to replace his rain jacket, which was falling apart.
We made the trip with Mitre Peak tours, one of the smaller companies with a smaller boat. There were only about 30 people on board. The advantage of doing the cruise in wet weather is that all the waterfalls are running - and they were everywhere, both temporary and permanent - Bridal and Stirling being the most spectacular. Our boat actually went right up to the falls. The cruise was informative. We found out that the Sound is not a Sound at all, but a Fiord- the difference being that a Fiord is made by a glacier. It's amazing to think that the fiord is 300m deep.
 |
| Milford Sound |
Milford Sound has been judged the world's top travel destination in an international survey (the 2008 Travellers’ Choice Destinations Awards by TripAdvisor) and is acclaimed as New Zealand's most famous tourist destination. Rudyard Kipling had previously called it the Eighth Wonder of the World.
Back to camp (in the rain). Fortunately we have power so we can keep warm and use the microwave to cook dinner.
