New Zealand VI: Journey to the Land of Gods, The Milford Sound

Jan 8, 2011

Laura and I rose at 6 a.m. to embark on the Milford Encounter Coach and Cruise Tour. Our coach picked us up in front of our hostel at 7 a.m. Our driver and tour guide for the day was Craig, a wacky New Zealander whose apparent dream in life was to be a comedian. He spent the entire drive talking into the bus mic cracking what he considered to be jokes, to which he received not a single laugh from the passengers. Poor fellow. But this didn't damper his spirits. For the entire 2 hour drive Craig continued his one-man comedy show. This man was a talented multi-tasker, I will give him that, skillfully navigating our bus along the windy roads while talking away. While I wasn't able to sleep on the bus as I had intended, I did learn a great deal from Craig's non-stop chatter. For example, I learned that New Zealand has over 40 million sheep. That's heaps of sheep! And they raise deer just like cattle, penned up on fields where they graze all day. That was something I had never seen before. Maybe we should start that practice here in the states; it would reduce the amount of dangerous deer collisions, don't you think?

The drive from Queenstown to the Milford Sound was absolutely incredible. We drove along the Lake Wakatipu, the third largest lake in New Zealand, and The Remarkables, a stunning mountain range that is named so because it is only one of two mountain ranges in the world that runs directly north to south (the other is the Rocky Mountains). Any attempt to describe their exquisite beauty would be inadequate, so I will let you gawk in awe at the photos. These pictures are worth a thousand words. Seeing them in person was worth a million.

Story Time: The legend of the creation of these mountains and lake goes a little something like this. A giant stole the king's beautiful daughter. He said whoever saved her could have her hand in marriage. A knight set off to rescue her from the giant. While the giant was sleeping, the knight laid ferns around the giant and set them on fire. The heat from the fire made the giant wiggle in his sleep, and as he wiggled he sank into the soil. As the flames grew hotter he wiggled more and more, sink further and further into the ground and making a big hole that the giant could not escape from. The heat from the flames made the glacier melt. The water flowed down the glacier, filling the hole the giant had made and his body resulting in the lake. The end.

Of course, as if our Creator's masterpiece wasn't already perfect enough he decided to throw in a rainbow. Yes. The big man (or woman) up top thought to himself, "What can I do to spruce up my already perfect landscape? I know! I'll add a rainbow." And he did. I was blown away.

There was mighty big pot of gold at the end of that one

Can you taste the Rainbow?

 Then we ran into a momentary roadblock...of sheep. Fortunately, Craig was on his A-game and braked in time to let this herd safely pass. Aren't they cute?

We continued on, travelling through a glacier-carved valley as shown in the photo below. Look familiar? If your a LOTR fan it should. This is where they filmed the scene when Gandolf is urgently racing Shadowfax across a wide open field to go get help. Know which scene I'm talking about? Go watch the movie and look for it. I think it was the first one. But if not, it can't hurt to watch them all. You have 10 hours to spare, right?

By now we had entered the Fiordland, the south west region of New Zealand that is comprised of the snow-capped Southern Alps, lakes, steep glacial vallies, and fiords. A fiord is a deep, narrow inlet of sea between steep rock slopes, often commonly referred to as a sound. The primary purpose of this day trip was to see the Milford Sound, but there are many other sounds and fiords in Fiordland. There are also heaps of waterfalls and lakes in this enchanting land. We stopped at Mirror Lake, which reflects its surroundings like a mirror image. Craig liked to joke that New Zealanders come up for simple names for things, naming the surroundings as they are. I thought Mirror Lake was lovely.

Next stop was The Chasm, a spectacular spot where the Cleddau River disappears between a narrow chasm and falls endlessly below. Unlike most waterfalls we saw in New Zealand which we viewed from the bottom up, we viewed this waterfall from the top looking down. To get to the Chasm we walked through an enchanting, eerie green forest.

It was hard to get a picture that really captured the powerful awe of this fall. 

The pathway to The Chasm

We're almost to the Milford Sound, promise. But first we drove through the Homer Tunnel, the 100 meter pass under a granite mountain that enables those of us who don't know how to fly a direct route to the Milford Sound. Otherwise, it would require climbing up and over some monstrous, snow-covered glaciers and mountains. I'll pass, thank you. 

The snow-capped mountains standing between us and the Milford Sound

We finally arrived at the Milford Sound around mid-day. The Milford Sound runs 15 km inland from the Tasman Sea and is surrounded by rock walls that rise 3,900 feet on either side. It is New Zealand's most famous attraction and has even been called the eighth wonder of the world by some (at least thats what Wikipedia says). We climbed aboard our boat, The Encounter, and were off on a two-and-a-half hour cruise around the sound.  

The Milford Sound was one of the most incredible things I have ever seen. The rock walls jutted out of the water and towered high above our heads. The way the light glistened off the rock mountains was beautiful. It was a magical, unearthly place. I felt like I had entered Mount Olympus, home to the gods. Seriously. At any moment I was expecting Zeus to be standing atop the highest mountain peak with a thunderbolt in hand as he gazed over his kingdom where mermaids swam and unicorns grazed. No, I was not tripping on shrooms. Yes, I was high on the surreal beauty surrounding me. You would have too. 

Oh, and did I mention that magnificent waterfalls poured off the mountain peaks? You may have noticed in the photos above. The cruise boat would drive right up into the large ones, and those passengers who were daring enough ran to the front of the boat to get soaked by the water pounding onto the ship. Whenever this happened I ran for cover inside the boat. There was no way I was going to survive the long ride back to Queenstown were I drenched in ice-cold mountain water, even if it was from a place of gods. And based on the shivering faces of those daring, but maybe not so bright, souls I knew I made the right decision. 

Last, but not least, we saw adorable seals resting in their paradise. Not exactly mermaids and unicorns, but they were just as exciting to see considering it was my first time seeing wild seal (as opposed to those I've seen at Seaworld). 

We returned to Queenstown that evening, beyond satisfied with our journey through Fiordland to the Milford Sound and back again. The only thing unsatisfied was my tummy. All this traveling business makes a girl pretty hungry. And so Laura and I set out to find Fergburger, which I had been told by my New Zealand friend back in Australia that I had to go to because they had the best burgers in the entire world. I don't even like burgers all that much (except for those at Prime 16), but his bold claim was so convincing that we made "eating a Fergburger" a must-do while in Queenstown. Boy am I glad we did, because that man did not lie. The Fergburger lived up to, if not exceeded, my expectations. I'm not sure I've ever enjoyed a burger like I enjoyed my Fergburger. Clearly from all this rambling you know it was good, and I can't explain why. Perhaps it was the tomato relish in place of tomato ketchup that did it. Who knows. All I know is that it was delicious. If you ever go to Queenstown (which I highly recommend!), you MUST visit the Milford Sound and eat a Fergburger. 

Ok, our Fergburgers don't look all that appetizing in this picture. But trust me- they were out of this world! Or that world...whichever world I was in.