Yesterday's destination was Milford Sound. The weather forecast was not good and even worse for the following day, so we threw caution to the wind [more about that later] and made our way via Te Anau to Milford.
On the shores of Lake Te Anau we found a humble little sculpture honoring Quentin McKracken, the original surveyor of the Milford track in the late 1800's. It's mind boggling to think how the track cutters and pioneer explorers managed in what would have been an extremely challenging terrain and environment and without all the modern equipment and clothing we have today.
Our first stop was in the Eglington Valley and the weather in the direction was Milford looked very gloomy. The Eglington Valley was base camp for all the road workers on the government employment scheme that supported the Milford road and Homer tunnel being built in the early 1900s. Hats of the the hardy pioneer women that lived here too, raising children, cooking and washing in what is the wettest environment in NZ - the mind boggles how they got all the heavy woolen clothing dry. Tough pioneers back then.
Another leg stretch stop at the Mirror Lakes - a pristine little oxbow from the main river that supports a healthy diverse environment - we even spotted an eel cruising along in the clear water.
As we approached the Homer tunnel the weather really clagged in and the waterfalls started streaming down the sides of the sheer fjord walls - totally beautiful even in the rainy / misty weather. Before the tunnel was knocked through the story goes that there were two teams, one working from the Te Anau side and one from the Milford side. The paymaster would come each fortnight with little pay envelopes for each worker and they had a climber that would climb over the top and pay the men on the Milford side. Yikes! It's an enormous climb on a good day however it rains three days out of four in Milford - again you have to admire the tenacity and grit of some of the early pioneers.
Over 30 yrs ago I travelled through the Homer tunnel in a campervan and in those days it was two way traffic which was super scary. The tunnel roof was still rocky and craggy where it had been originally hacked away - our driver [not me] moved over to the left hand side to let a small car pass and we crunched the top of the campervan luton. Nowadays thank goodness they have a one way system and traffic lights in place.
The view that greeted us as we arrived at Milford fjord - not looking great.
You can't go all that way and not go out on the fjord so off we went and it was lovely even in the mist. The walls of the fjord take your breath away they are so sheer. In one place you could clearly see a massive cleft in the rockface and the cruise guide indicated this was an ancient fault line and then went on to say that they have been having small earthquakes there daily for the last month or so but we were totally safe.
With all the rain and mist the waterfalls were amazing, everywhere you looked the walls of the fjord were streaming with spectacular waterfalls - the photos are inadequate at showing their splendour so you'll have to take my word for it.
Our cruise took us out to the Tasman Sea and at one stage in the narrowest part of the fjord the wind coming off the sea into the fjord was gusting 40 knots - it was quite spectacular and you had to hold on tight on the top deck. We did find some sheltered spots and even spotted some young male seals that were sleeping on rocks.
What a special place, even in poor weather, it was still breathtaking. There were a lot of overseas visitors on the cruise and they were all in awe of the fjord and didn't mind the weather one little bit.
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