WOW! We can't say that enough about our Milford Sound tour. Not only for the scenery, but for the weather – sunny, comfortable temps, and little wind (except when we were underway on the water). The drive from Te Anau to the Sound itself takes about 2 hours ... if you don't stop along the way. Well, that's just impossible as you want to take in all the great sights. The first 40 minutes or so aren't that great, just rolling hills with brown tussock. Then, you enter a glacial valley and the mountains spring closer. We stopped at Mirror Lakes and caught some great reflection shots in the the calm waters. As we wound closer to the mountains, we stopped at Homer Tunnel – traffic is 1-way and controlled by a set of lights (you line up and wait for your turn). There was plenty of time for us to take photos of the nearby mountain terrain, waterfalls, and clouds. We could see the clouds coming up over the ridge – little did we know what that was going to mean.
The road through the tunnel drops 1 meter for every 10 meters of travel ... and it's pretty darn dark in there, too! We came out the other side into the clouds – visibility was limited to a couple of hundred meters until we descended into the valley. Our tour guide also pointed out the effects of tree avalanches (which we dubbed "treevalanches"). Since there is no topsoil on the mountains (it's mostly rock), the trees use the lichen on which to grow, their roots interlocking to keep them growing on the steep mountain sides. When trees near the top lose their grip (either through too much snow or ice, or running water from snowmelt or rain, or high winds), they start sliding down the slope, taking out all the trees below them. We could see great swaths of bare rock or where there was only grass/lichen growing – the "treevalanche" effects are awesome and destructive.
