We arrived in Te Anau and headed to the remote fiordland in the far south-west of the south island. This region is one of the wettest places in the world and home to some unique marine life also. Despite it's name, 'sound' is a misnomer given that the fiords are in fact fiords (carved from ice) rather than sounds (carved from rivers). Fascinating!
On route we passed through endless long windy roads with mountainous back drops covered with mist and low cloud. Truly spectacular. Our stop for the night was at an unmanned but legitimate campsite at Lake Dunn. Generally these campsites have a registration form, and payment letterbox with a toilet and not much else. Despite this we had no complaints as we parked literally on a magnificent lake surrounded by forest covered mountains, and it was just us.
The fishing rod came out and I spent the evening practising my poor casting technique. No fish on this occasion.
The morning came and we completed the final leg of our trip to Milford Sounds, including the pass through the famous 2km 'Homer Tunnel' that literally goes through a mountain - hand dug in the 1920's and makes the apparently most accessible fiord, now accessible. An indication of how difficult it is to reach these places . To the local Maori people these fiords are sacred and the atmosphere of mist, huge mountains and water are an indication of why.
We booked our combo ticket including a cruise of the fiord, lunch, a tour of the marine reserve and kayaking. The cruse was interesting and with the recent heavy rainfall we were lucky to see hundreds of waterfalls making their way down the mountain sides. We had a big lunch and then taken for a tour of the marine reserve. Here the unique underwater life is studied, mainly because of it's unique nature. The fiords are filled with Tasman seawater, but the rainfall here is so high that there is often a 3m or sometimes upto 10m freshwater layer sitting on top! This means that various underwater life that is normally adapted to much lower depths has evolved to survive in relatively shallow water. This includes the extremely rare black coral which we saw in the underwater observatory used to study the marine life. The guys working at the centre are all diving instructors with an interest in marine biology - what a job!!
Our kayaking trip was great fun and probably the best way to appreciate 1600m mountains that are pretty much a straight ascent from sea level. Our guide Ricardo was really nice and we kayaked for over an hour amongst the stunning landscape learning more about this unique environment.
We had a great time and headed back to Milford Sound bay and drove to another campsite called Knobs Lane - remarkable for its amazing hot power showers!
Overall our trip to Milford sounds was great - thanks again NZ
