Milford Sound and Beyond...

"Hello from the other side, we must have tramped a thousand miles" since Queenstown.  On Wednesday we set out for Te Anau the gateway to the Milford Sound, one of 14 fiords in Fiordland on the Southwest coast of the South Island.  Folklore says when the Maori God carved out his last fiord Milford, he had finally reached perfection and it really is a spectacular setting that is not easy to reach.  I think Milford is the only fiord assessable by car, but the trip in and out is a real journey.

First, a shoutout to the charming B&B "Whitestones", where we had a comfortable, freshly updated 2 bedroom suite on a deer farm, surrounded by sheep farms, in the countryside of Te Anau with a wide view of the mountains and pastures during long daylight hours starting around 5am and ending after 10pm!  Met with chocolate, pastries and wine, we settled in and then set out to explore a short portion of the Kepler Track, one of the great walks in NZ, and a multi-day overnighter for the hearty.  For us weaklings, a 3 hour "return" (NZ for "round trip") to Brod's Bay passing through a dense, moss and fern covered forest, or along a massive stone covered beach on a clear blue lake with mountains and glaciers in the distance!  We even saw a hobbit or two!  Let's talk about the ferns!  How to describe?...massive in size (3-5 feet tall) or sometimes "wee" fern barely the size of your hand, endless in number and variety.  The same with the moss!... a foot thick, blanketing the ground, the trees, the rocks, often filled with 2 1/2 times their size in water and so many varieties of this wee plant.  And the trees!...tall, knobby, so wide at the base that 6 people holding hands could wrap around a tree and did I mention, covered with fern and moss.  And the cool air, and the earthly smell!  We were in Middle Earth!  (FYI... a great starter hike, but to challenge yourself, you can hire a water taxi across the lake to Brod's Bay, hike up as far as you'd like towards the first set of huts, turn around and then hike back to town along the trail we took.). But beware non-Kiwis of the definition of the phrase an "intermediate" hike in NZ...and also know that the phrase "it's just over there" does not mean "it's just around the corner", but rather that's it's just in the direction you are heading, but you're getting close.

We bought a small cooler and always have salami, cheese and crackers or bread, with dried fruits and snacks so we never starve and always find a memorable site for a quick meal and it's always so much fun shopping in foreign grocery stores.  Thank goodness we brought our hiking boots and trekking poles back from Colorado!  And just FYI, cerulean blue is a popular car color over here...you know, the color of the belt (or was it the sweater?) in "A Devil Wears Prada".

On Thursday after a massive homemade breakfast of poached eggs, asparagus, fresh fruit and yogurt and yummy bacon which is more like Canadian bacon or ham, we left at 6:30am for the 2 hour scenic drive to Milford Sound which, after a rain storm, is filled with hundreds and hundreds of waterfalls, cascading down the massive moss, fern, free covered granite cliffs towering over you on both sides of the road.  The path itself is a twisty often one way road ending at a long lake leading out to the Tasmin Sea.  We had booked online a 2-hour 9:45am cruise with Southern Discoveries, plus a 1 hour kayak and picnic lunch.  (The company Juizy had space for walk-ins on their 9:15am 2 hour cruise if you're late in booking and want to take a chance.)  Our day however was a perfect, sunny, blue sky,  cloudless day, rather than the cold, rainy, misty day we anticipated, but it was a joyous day that Kiwis dream of, so I guess I'll have to go online to see endless waterfalls.  It was one of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen as we cruised past granite cliffs, mountains and glaciers, and also literally through a few waterfalls, similar to an Alaskan cruise out of Seward, and an experience we'd been waiting years to see.  The kayak ride of 20 guests was in a deep turquoise peaceful cove (until the massive sea breeze kicked in at the end which we survived) in single kayaks led by a nature guide.  We were lucky to see a 20+ pod of rare 2 meter (short) dusky dolphins and seals and birds.  (If you go don't forget sunscreen and bug repellant for gnats near the harbour and we were lucky to avoid all the transport buses for the noon cruises which really affects traffic flow, so book early and book for a morning cruise.)

The drive out was just as beautiful.  If the 4 hour drive in and out, the 2 hour cruise and the 1 hour kayak wasn't enough, we also decided to fit in a 3 hour return walk to Key Summit, at the  opposite
end of the Routeburn Track that we tramped back in Glenorchy.  The pictures say it all as it overlooked Fiordland and had a wonderful alpine breeze at the end.  At one point on our drive back, we stopped in a multi-acre field of wild pink, purple, blue and lavender lupin flowers and sat on a grassy knoll in the middle of a rushing stream and ate a late salami, cheese and bread dinner.  Arriving back to our B&B at 8pm on New Year's Eve, we were greeted by our hosts with snacks and champagne and wonderful conversation.  Simply a glorious day.  This morning after another delicious breakfast, we headed to the Lake District via Arrowtown, the Crown Range and a stay along Lake Wanaka.