Today started an hour early as the clocks went forward for New Zealand Summer Time. Left the Hotel at 6:50 and at 7am on the dot, the bus turns up. Driver introduces himself as Lester and has a nearly empty bus. We set off on the 300km trip to Milford, where we’d get a boat around the sound, then get the bus back.
Lester seemed to know a lot about the area and was very entertaining as he negotiated winding roads and chatted away. I was glad I opted for a bus trip as trying to drive and take it all in would have meant missing a lot. We first stopped at Te Anau for coffee. It was a lovely town. A lot of this area reminds me of the lake district. Lots of slate fronted buildings, with fells and obviously lakes.
We next headed up to the mirror lakes, past a massive moraine with some impressive rock deposits. You could see the forces at work just carving out the valley. Some of the bedrock is granite and pretty hard rock!
After that, it was on to Knob’s flat, which is where a lot of the conservation work is planned and carried out. Australian possums, rats and ferrets were all introduced to try any bolster the fur trade, unfortunately, it decimated the local bird life which had all lived for thousands of years with no predators. The possums also strip all the leaves from the trees, causing them to die which further compounds the problem. Many of the drivers and guides are volunteers and set traps to try and cull the rodent population and steps are being taken to try and restore the balance as something like 44 species have been wiped out in the last 200 years.
The bird above is a Kea, it’s a mountain parrot. Fascinating and they’re meant to have intelligence on a par with monkeys. They’re classed as a pest as they will attack and kill lambs. This is learnt behaviour they think from a now extinct bird of prey called a moa. They make an amazing call, which is where they get their names from
Next stop was the Homer Tunnel. A very impressive 1.2km tunnel through solid rock, which quite a sleep gradient. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a photo, but Wikipedia has a good article on it (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer_Tunnel)
Also I was at snow level for the first time, although this was possibly a left over avalanche but it still counts!
Next on the stop was mysteriously called ‘The Chasm’ which was a water fall with (I can’t remember the term) percussive erosion causing bowls. Rocks are carried down with the water and rattle around, wearing the rock down. All this is complemented with crystal clear blue tinged glacial melt water. It was really quite stunning
Next it was on to Milford for the boat. It really was, welcome to Jurassic Park.
The boat headed out to the Tasman sea, past Mitre Point, which is 1.6km high and they said was the highest peak to raise out of the sea in the world.
The boat then nosed into a waterfall. They were saying this was some of the purest water on the planet, we tried some from a spring on the way up and it was very refreshing!
The backdrop was breath taking, the photos don’t do it justice
After this, it was a bus ride back, however, an opportunity for a helicopter ride arose, so was definitely going to have a go on that! It was both exhilarating and petrifying at the same time. The pilot was obviously very experienced and took great delight in scaring us all. He was getting a bit close to the sides and laughing as we all looked scared but the views were amazing!
As a treat, he landed on top of the glacier so we could have a wander about. I even have a photo next to the helicopter which he printed on the flight down somehow?
We then went to meet the bus. I have never felt cooler when you swoop down in a helicopter, land on a mountain road next to a waiting bus, get out, and run with your head down to avoid the rotor wash, turn, give a thumbs to the pilot so show you’re clear then casually step onto a bus as the helicopter takes off again!
Final stop on the way back was a cafe with an alpaca farm, which was a bit surreal given the day we’d had!
got back to the hotel, packed up, had something to eat as I’ve a 500km drive to Christchurch tomorrow and want to set off early!