Day 2: Onward to Milford Sound
We got up this morning to a crisp almost frosty air with the mountains in the background and lovely pink sky as the sun rose up on the horizon. After a quick breakfast of eggs, toast and cereal we checked out of the lodge and headed on our way to Milford Sound. We drove through Lindis Pass and along the Kawaru river where the views were spectacular the whole way around with a slight Lord of the Rings feel to it since this was yet another place where some scenes in the movie were shot.
Lunch was in a place called Te Anau (sounds like Tee-anna) which is the last bit of civilization before heading out to Milford Sound. The town itself isn't very large and from what I could gather it mostly caters to tourists, so there were a lot of places to buy souvenirs and little resort type hotels around.
After leaving Te Anau we drove out to our final destination of the day Milford Sound. From what we were told a sound is a body of water carved out from the mountain sides by glaciers, however, by definition Milford Sound is actually a fijord. Milford Sound is so far removed from the rest of civilization that the few people who live there buy several month's worth of groceries just before the winter hits. This is mainly due to the fact that the only way to access Milford Sound (save a helicopter of course) is through the 1.2km Homer tunnel. On a side note, every summer the Homer tunnel plays host to a race. A race where both men and women compete to see who can run through the dark tunnel the fastest with only a torch (flashlight) and when I say only a torch I mean just that, as in no clothing whatsoever. The winners (one man and one woman) of the race win a Ken or Barbie doll (respectively) and their name engraved on a plaque recognizing them as the winner for that year. Our tour guide ran in that race one year and actually won; he's a bit crazy.
Once on the boat we selected our sleeping quarters for the night, left our stuff and went back up on deck for a quick safety talk and an info session on what sorts of activities there were to do on the boat once we left shore.
After leaving Te Anau we drove out to our final destination of the day Milford Sound. From what we were told a sound is a body of water carved out from the mountain sides by glaciers, however, by definition Milford Sound is actually a fijord. Milford Sound is so far removed from the rest of civilization that the few people who live there buy several month's worth of groceries just before the winter hits. This is mainly due to the fact that the only way to access Milford Sound (save a helicopter of course) is through the 1.2km Homer tunnel. On a side note, every summer the Homer tunnel plays host to a race. A race where both men and women compete to see who can run through the dark tunnel the fastest with only a torch (flashlight) and when I say only a torch I mean just that, as in no clothing whatsoever. The winners (one man and one woman) of the race win a Ken or Barbie doll (respectively) and their name engraved on a plaque recognizing them as the winner for that year. Our tour guide ran in that race one year and actually won; he's a bit crazy.
posted by Compmouse at 5:07 PM
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