March 17
This morning we again have a beautiful sunrise.
We load up in a tour van for an all day trip to Milford Sound. We have a private tour for our group
Our first view point stop is an overlook of the end of TeAneu Lake, New Zealand’s largest. Its lowest point is 400 feet below sea level.
As a drive-through the first of three valleys on the way to Milford sound, we stopped for a view . The brown grass is not native when the ranchers used to use this valley. They actually rubbed grass seed all over the wall in order to propagate more grass for the next season is grazing. In the 1980s, this became a UNESCO site the land use permit was rescinded in the early 80s.
We continue at the highway towards a mountain pass beside us is a gorgeous river with Crystal Clearwater.
We cross the highway and have a few of waterfall, dropping it into another very clear pool of water.
Rocks are covered with a rusty red colored lichen moss.
All of this set, nestled in steep mountains and large moss covered trees
Our next stop looks at a sheer rock wall nicknamed by the local rock climbing club as psychopath.
This waterfall is visible from the roadway, it is much larger than it looks. The walk to it is about an hour.
We’ve come through the mountain, literally. There is a tunnel that was blasted through the rock face. You can see the metal shed that covers the road where we come out of the mountain. It took six years of drilling and blasting from both sides to get all the way through in the 40s, but due to the world war construction was stopped and resources were no longer available. complete construction took 20 years to get the roadway through the mountain.
The rock face has water running down its side trick laying down in multiple small lines
The valley before us has wispy clouds floating in its base. These valleys were created by glaciers.
Our next stop is at a foot bridge crossing another one of the mountain rivers. Again, we have beautiful, steep mountains with waterfalls cascading down.
We’ve arrived at the Milford sound port and preparing to get on our boat for a cruise of the Fiord
We are greeted by a Great Egret hanging out on pier at our boat’s mooring.
The water level in the field is about a mile deep. The steepness of the cliffs continues down to the U-shaped valley floor. Everywhere you look along the hillside you can see incredible waterfalls coming off the mountain sides.
We’ve made it out to the mouth of the fiord and the open sea where we turned around and will be coming back I’ll be opposite side of the channel.
The ship turns around and goes back down the opposite side of the channel with just as many amazing views.
We’ve come across a couple of juvenile seals out on a rock. The one higher up on the rock got somewhat territorial and pushed the lower one off
Also a seal that was born earlier this year sunny itself on an adjacent rock.
Waterfalls continue to come into view as we continue the channel
This is a 480 foot waterfall in front of us demonstrates how these tall walls dwarf everything else.
The captain of the boat took us right up the edge where we experienced the spray first hand
We pulled into a cove where the overnight ships dock. Here we found some ducks floating in the water. There are more amazing views here and just ahead.
After getting off the boat, we took a short walk along the shore of the harbor. There are some beautiful flowers from the iris family, trees, fungi, birds, and water picture opportunities
My friend Sherri likes putting her feet in the bodies of water that she finds. She has a goal of dipping them in every ocean she encounters. She seems very pleased with herself having checked the Tasman Sea off her list.
One of the plants we have seen is called the Miki. One of them with translucent and gelatinous berries while the other are a dark purple firmer looking berry.
We returned back to the van on now heading to the hotel. I tried to get some pictures inside of the tunnel.
One last stop is Mirror Lake. Really it’s more of a pond, but the water is very still and reflex the mountains on the other side of the valley giving a 180° reflection in the water
It’s difficult to see with its coloring blending in to the surrounding lake bottom, but I did capture a large trout on the camera.
We arrived back at our vehicles, grabbed a meat pie for an early dinner and began our 2 Hour D
It’s difficult to see with its coloring blending in to the surrounding lake bottom, but I did capture a large trout on the camera.
We arrived back at our vehicles, grabbed a meat pie for an early dinner and began our 2 Hour Dr. back to Queenstown for tonight.
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