MILFORD SOUND
Milford Sound
Milford sound is at the far north end of Fiordland. From the coast it’s well hidden, as it’s sides overlap at the mouth. It’s about a two hour drive, without stops, from Te Anau, and is the only easily accessible of the Fiords. Because of this it is one of the biggest attractions in New Zealand. There’s a small township there, and during the season when it’s accessible by road, about two hundred fifty people work there, either in the tourism industry, or fishing for lobster. The nearest police are two hours away, so at the beginning of the season, a cop drives up and genuinely tells the staff to follow just one rule. “don’t be a dick”. At the end of the day, i guess that really does cover it.
Anyways during the high season, this little township sees over six thousand tourists a day. It has the busiest domestic airport in NZ, with over three hundred air movements per day. I purposely booked my entire trip in the shoulder season, to beat some of the crowd. Even so, there’s still a couple thousand people visiting the Fiord every day. I wanted to make sure I got some time there when there wasn’t a crowd. So I booked myself two nights in a dorm at one of the only little lodges in the township, along with an evening kayak trip that goes the entire length of the fiord after most of the cruise trips have finished for the day.
I left mid morning to start my drive. It’s beautiful country and I knew i’d be making a ton of stops. The road going going north from Te Anau gradually gets more and more confined by the mountains. Until it finally must pass through a nearly mile long one lane tunnel before making its way down to the sound. The views from the drive are nearly as epic as the views from the sound, and it’s hard to actually drive more than two minutes before having to get out and have a look.
Once again, the weather was on my side. I had unobstructed views all the way up the cliff walls for the entire journey. After checking into my dorm, I walked down to the shore where there’s a short loop walk that takes you into the tidal range where you can explore the greater area on your own. Sun was bright and hot, but the wind coming in out of the fiord was crazy! I was once again pretty determined to swim though… After wandering around a bit, I found an area just in front of the airstrip that was somewhat sheltered.
The water wasn’t even cold! I mean it certainly wasn’t warm either, but floating on my back with the view of the fiord around me and the occasional jarring view of a plane taking off right above me made it such a surreal experience. With the crazy wind, I didn’t even need a towel. I just stood and slowly turned around. By the time I made it back to the lodge I was completely dry. I’m rather certain I was the only one to swim that day haha.
For the next days kayak trip, seven of us joined a guide in four double sea kayaks. Because the wind gets so intense in the afternoon, they take you out to beyond the mouth of the sound in the Tasman sea by a small boat. From there we hugged the cliff walls and kayaked all the way back to the dock. By the time we started kayaking most of the little cruise ships had finished their routes and for the most part we had the place to ourselves.
This place was not build to human scale. It makes no sense. In some sections the cliff actually overhangs the water. The only sense of scale you get is when you see the occasional ship pas close to what you’re looking at. Or when you realize that the distances you’re viewing are actually long enough for the curvature of the earth to obscure things. In the pictures, there’s a waterfall that’s 155 meters tall, then several photos that show it in context of the surrounding area.
Anyways, we made it back safe and sound. That night, I wen’t back down to the shore to watch the sunset. The nice thing about being here at night, is that hardly anyone is around. I stuck around the shore after dark, which happened to coincide with low tide. I could walk nearly half a kilometer out into the fiord to watch the moon and stars. I really feel so absurdly privileged to be here.
As is becoming my habit, I got an early start the next day to avoid the crowd on their way in, and benefit from some different lighting of the mountains. I had about five hours of driving planned for the day. I was going to the southernmost part of the south island.
